To celebrate the time Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Max) lived in Hoy, Dan Lee, University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute Lifelong Learning and Outreach Archaeologist, will be completing a ‘Walking Talk’ to ‘Max’s’ former croft at Rackwick.
- Walk starts: Moaness Pier, Hoy
- Time: 10am
- Date: 17 June 2017
- Bus back from Rackwick to Hoy Kirk to see the exhibition celebrating Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ time in Rackwick
- Take the Ferry from Stromness at 9.30am, returning on the 6.30pm from Moaness Pier
With the music of Max in mind, the walk will explore the landscape of Hoy, taking in the archaeology, heritage and folklore through the valley. Recent archaeological surveys have recorded numerous sites and points of interest. The walk is approximately five miles in length and can be difficult in parts – especially if the weather has been wet. Bring a packed lunch as there are no shops at Rackwick.
Starting at 10 am on 17th June, the walk will finish above Bunnertoon, Max’s home during his most prolific years, with a view across the township.
Walkers will have ample time to explore the Hoy Max exhibition that examines how the island and its people shaped the composer’s life and music and how Max contributed to the small island community.
Contact hoyheritage@btinternet.com to book your place.
Orkney Ferries run a daily foot passenger service from Stromness to Moaness, Hoy. There is a cafe at Moaness and the exhibition at Hoy Kirk is 15 minutes walk from the pier.
With thanks to Hoy Kirk Heritage Centre. For more information on Hoy, the exhibition and the St Magnus Festival events held on the island check out their website.
The Orkney Natural History Society Museum, Stromness, has received a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Stories, Stones and Bones grant. This exciting project, Listening to the Piers – Exploring the history of Stromness through the town piers is led by Stromness Museum in partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute. The programme involves organising arts and science workshops for the public and local schools and is aimed at exploring the history of Stromness through the town piers. This project is part of Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.
memories and the history of the piers during May and June. Workshops on Piers Day will include archaeological test pit excavation on the town beaches to explore what the town threw away, sea life in the piers and intertidal zone, drawing (5-minute sketches), photography (artefacts and sea life) and time-lapse filming. Participants will learn new science and arts-based skills and help create new insights into the piers. These events are free and open to all ages.
The chamber appears to be entirely constructed from coursed masonry with no bed-rock or glacial till apparent as some Iron Age souterrains and wells do. There are no uprights or pillars present inside the chamber, which makes this structure feel like one of the so-called wells more than a classic souterrain or earthhouse. The steep drop-off between the passage and the chamber also encourages the idea that there may well be a steep flight of stairs leading down into the chamber. The chamber might be really quite deep underneath all the Victorian, and perhaps earlier, in-fill.
As you can see from the images there’s so much Victorian material it probably represents quite an academically interesting collection in its own right. We might be tempted to think that later periods are so well-understood and documented that it isn’t worth thinking about this detritus archaeologically, but actually its often the case that the domestic habits of later periods are often overlooked in many mainstream histories and documents. The Victorian rubbish is potentially a neat snap-shot of someone’s (perhaps one of the Manse’s Ministers) domestic waste of that era and may be full of insight about the habits, tastes and practices of a Nineteenth Century Orkney house- with a real social history value. What’s more, it’s also an interesting insight into a recent intervention in an Orcadian souterrain/well that we had no previous knowledge of. So it’s also noteworthy that here we have an example of another prehistoric underground building that was clearly known to locals, for a time, but didn’t make its way on to the official archives, and helps make the point that there are likely to be so many more of these sorts of structures still to be found in Orkney. We’ll keep you updated in what happens at the site.”
The geophysics completed last season highlighted areas that could benefit from closer scrutiny. We found brilliant evidence for the kinds of ancient activites going on in the hinterland of the broch, including arable field soils dating to the Iron Age, ashy midden overlying the eastern side of the Iron Age village, and a possible hollow way or track that runs up to the front entrance of the broch enclosure and probably separated animals from cultivated crops over two thousand years ago. We also found distinctive Iron Age pottery, stone tools, flint, lots of animal bone and a rare furnace base (or hearth bottom) a residue from iron working. 
Archaeology on Rousay was in the limelight last week as the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute welcomed delegates to Orkney for the LANDMARKS workshop. Led by Mark Edmonds (University of York), Ingrid Mainland (UHI) and Dave Cowley (Historic Environment, Scotland), the workshop brought together some of the leading figures in landscape research from around the world for four days of lectures and field visits to west Mainland and Rousay.
