The Norse Waterways of West Mainland Orkney, Scotland

The Norse Waterways of West Mainland Orkney, Scotland Martin Bates, Richard Bates, Barbara Crawford, and Alexandra Sanmark1 landscape will be that of loss of navigable Summary waterways. The potential existence of a line of This purpose of the study was to investigate the these in the West Mainland of Orkney was an idea originally developed by Barbara Crawford existence of navigable waterways in the West (Crawford 2006 a, b). This has been further Mainland of Orkney, Scotland, in the Norse period examined in recent research (Sanmark 2017; (790―1350). In the parish of Harray, a Norse farm Crawford and Sanmark 2016) to highlight an named Houseby is found. Farms with this name important gap in our knowledge of the past are known from Scandinavia and Orkney and are landscape of Orkney. usually situated by major water routes. An After the initial Norse settlement, the Orkney inspection of the oldest geographically referenced Earldom was created in the late 9th century AD maps for the parish suggests that in the past and gradually integrated into the kingdom of significant waterways across wetlands may have Norway, where it remained until the islands were extended north from the loch of Harray towards mortgaged to the Scottish kingdom in 1468. The Houseby in an area close to the power centre of fertile West Mainland of Orkney was a key area of the earldom at Birsay. The main aim of this project power for the Norse Earls, and this is where many was to test this hypothesis using palaeo- of the Earls’ seats of power were located, such as geographic reconstructions and further study of the residence at the Brough of Birsay, as well as a place-names. Specific objectives included large number of other estates linked to the Earls. geophysical analysis of abandoned river channels One of the most interesting estates is Houseby, in due to water course re-alignments and core the parish of Harray, now located next to Sabiston sampling of silted-up lochs. Comparison of the Loch. Houseby is derived from Old Norse 'húsabær' palaeo-reconstructions with place names of and translates as ‘farms with many significance allowed interpretation of possible houses/buildings’. Estates bearing the modern routeways along navigable waters by shallow- name huseby/husaby are found across the Viking draught Viking-age vessels and provided the homelands of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. potential for re-drawing the map of Norse Orkney Outside Scandinavia, Orkney is the only area and postulating transfer of produce from estates in where these farms have been identified. the parishes of Harray and Sandwick through the waterways to the power centre at Birsay. Finally, Published research into the Huseby farms dates the methodology applied here could be useful to from the 1950s (e.g. Steinnes 1955), and in 2016 other parts of Orkney, and elsewhere, in an edited volume containing the Stand der understanding more about communication via Forschung was published (Christensen et al 2016). navigable lochs and waterways through the Norse According to the current scholarly consensus, the period. Huseby farms formed part of a royal system that was introduced across all three Scandinavian Introduction kingdoms, with the growth of kingship in the 11th Climate change and natural processes of siltation century. At this time, existing farms were renamed have inevitably changed the landscape of Orkney Huseby to signal their special function, most likely since the Norse period (Viking Age and Late Norse as royal farms for the collection of taxes in kind Period, c. 790―1350). One aspect of a changed 1 The order of names is purely alphabetical. (Christensen et al 2016). These farms shared many located c. 4 km south of the Huseby farm (named traits and characteristics, which varied slightly Husabae) which replicates the close proximity of between geographical areas. The most relevant Knarston and Huseby farms in Harray (Crawford characteristic for this project is the location of the 2006 a). Huseby estates in the landscape. In this respect, The topography around the West Mainland researchers have shown that the Huseby farms Houseby supports the idea that the water levels were frequently situated at the convergence of were more conducive for navigation during the different communication routes, often where land Norse period. This is particularly clearly seen in the and major water routes met (see e.g. chapters in area west and southwest of Sabiston Loch. This is Christensen, Lemm and Pedersen 2016). Above all, an area of low-lying marshy terrain, which on late a location by significant water routes seems to 19th-century Ordnance Survey (OS) map is marked have been common, which fits with the idea of as ‘liable to floods’. The watercourses in these these farms as collection points for renders and areas have been heavily modified with drainage rents in kind. This is indeed the case in Orkney too, channels marked on all current OS maps (Crawford as five of the six identified Huseby farms are 2006 a). In the Norse period the loch of Stenness located on the coast, by important sea routes. The was connected to the loch of Harray via a narrow one exception is Houseby on the West Mainland, channel to the south of Brodgar marked today by which is currently found c. 3 km from the Loch of the large standing stone, ‘the Watch Stone’. If Harray and thus not directly accessible by boat navigable routeways through connected shallow today. In view of the evidence already presented, lochs and gently flowing streams extended north this is rather surprising. from Harray then Houseby, which is located far It is therefore interesting that there is a striking inland on modern maps, could instead be shown body of evidence suggesting that Houseby was to have been situated by a major water route most likely situated by a waterway of some kind. through Orkney’s West Mainland. In this way, the This is strongly implied by the place-names. role of Houseby and other Earldom farms in this Houseby is located by the small Sabiston Loch (the area can be shown to have formed an integral part former Loch of Houseby), southwest of which is of the Earls’ administrative arrangements. It is the township of Sabiston. This is documented as further possible that the connections through the ‘Sebustar’ in 1492 and translates as ‘Sea Farm’. landscape north of Harray may even have been The first element is used in Norwegian place- modified during the Norse period in order to make names to refer to an inland ‘sea’ or ‘arm of the navigation more practical. Such undertakings are sea’. Greenay, the township to the northwest of known, for example with the massive Kanhave Sabiston Loch, is another significant name which canal on the island of Samsø in Denmark, which may be translated as ‘shallow waters’. There is seems to have been constructed in the 8th also Swartland farm (‘Black Land’), 1 km west of century. These waterways, including modified Sabiston, which is said to refer to the dark, mossy streams connecting shallow lochs were easily nature of the soil. Another significant place-name, traversed using the typical, shallow draft (often also a potential indicator of water routes, is less than 0.5m) ‘snekkja’ type vessels used to Knarston (Old Norse ‘knarrar staðir’). This name is navigate inland waters (Crumlin Pedersen 2010, derived from the word for a transport vessel (Old 90―1, 141). Norse ‘knörr’) and denotes a farm where these The place-name Warth (HY 226218) may also be of vessels were moored. These names, and their significance in this context. This farm lies to the topographical situation, have been examined in south and west of the Loch of Sabiston and the Norway and are known to be significant for Loch of Banks, in a low-lying locality which is transport routes and connections with the sea or riddled with drainage ditches, one of which is rivers. This is indeed the case with the other called the Burn of Warth. West of it is the small Knarston place-names in Orkney which are found Loch of Rosemire. Warth is derived from ON varða on the island of Rousay and on the Bay of Scapa (‘a beacon’), but the origin of the name has been near Kirkwall on Mainland. The Rousay Knarston is seen as ‘obscure’ as it is in a low-lying location. It Methodology has the same origin as the Ward Hills in Orkney, Prior to field investigation of the site a background where the beacon meaning is well understood mapping exercise was conducted of all available (Marwick 1970; Clouston, 1931―2). However, georeferenced maps from the National Map there is plenty of evidence from Denmark, in Library of Scotland. These included Mckenzie’s particular, that the same name (Danish warth) was coastal charts of 1750, James Dorret’s 1750 land used for a vagttarne (‘watchtower’) in low-lying maps and the series of OS maps from the 1830s. locations on routes through the waterways, such Together with recent aerial photography surveys as the Roskilde fjord. Ole Crumlin Pedersen has these allowed a targeting of potential infilled studied all such watchtowers in the different stream and lochs for further investigation. branches of the fjord waterways leading to Roskilde as a varslingsystemer (‘defence system’) Field work consisted of both remote geophysical and shows the interconnecting viewpoints sensing and collecting ground truth information (viewsheds) (Crumlin Pedersen 1978, 52, Fig. 28). using targeted coring. The geophysical methods This was part of a wide-ranging signal system adopted was direct current electrical resistivity established in many fjords in the 11th century tomography (ERT) as this has proven successful in (Crumlin Pedersen 2010, 129―31).

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