Fersness quarry is an extensive site comprising quarry workings, the remains of a pier, and a former dwelling of Quarryhouse, situated on the south shore of Fersness Bay, in the west of Eday (NGR HY 53608 33535).
The stone quarry has been in intermittent use at Fersness since at least the seventeenth century, although more continuous working at the quarry began in1855 when it was rented out to an expert quarry foreman. The quarry produced a yellow sandstone, named Eday Freestone, because it can be split easily and freely. Quarry workers came from North Ronaldsay families, who were resettled on the land on the west side of Eday following an agreement between Robert Hebden of Carrick House and the laird of North Ronaldsay.
The dwelling of Quarryhouse was built at this time and there was also a pier at the quarry which allowed the cut stone to be loaded directly on to boats and transported off-island. As well as being exported, stone was used for buildings and roads in Eday, including Backaland pier. It is probable that East Quarryhouse and Easthouse were built by quarrymen and occupied by their families. The quarry lease was later taken up by James Baikie and John Tulloch before being passed to Thomas Hood of Wick in 1885.
In 1871, 13 men of the 900 people living in Eday were employed at the quarry. John Hood & Son of Wick took over the lease of the quarry in the early twentieth century.
In 1939, the Eday Peat Company bought a crane with weighing machine, and a boat from J. Hood, as the quarry pier could accommodate larger vessels than their own pier in the northwest of Eday. About this time, the quarry started to become unviable due to pressure from overseas imports and, after the Second World War, the preference for concrete blocks as building material.
When the Great Gale of 1953 destroyed the pier at Fersness, the decision was made not to rebuild it. The subsequent decline in the both the stone and peat industries meant that there was no economic justification for repairing the pier, but the sandstone seam at Fersness was almost exhausted at this point anyway. Although the pier is not shown on subsequent mapping, in-situ facing stones observed close to the water’s edge probably represent the east- and west-facing walls of the pier.
The survey
The site was visited as part of the project launch in Eday in February 2024, followed up in September with recording, undertaken by ORCA and local volunteers.
The historic quarrying at Ferness extended southwards from the shoreline along the Bay. The earliest depiction of the quarry (on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1881) shows the quarry measuring 75m by 40m. Today, the quarried area measures approximately 150m north-south by 40m east-west, which would have been its size when operations ceased in 1953.
Five retaining walls constructed from the quarried stone were identified within the quarry, built to manage spoil heaps and maintain access along the quarry floor. A flight of stone steps leads from the east side of the quarry base to the top of the spoil tip and the base of the exposed working face above.
Much of the quarry faces at the north and southwest ends are obscured by spoil and stone debris from later workings but tooling and cutting marks are visible on the exposed work faces.
Two buildings are shown at the north end of the quarry workings on the 1881 Ordnance Survey mapping and a ‘L’-shaped structure in on both the First and Second Edition maps in the northeast corner, an area currently masked by spoil and vegetation. A portion of walling was visible within the spoil measuring roughly 1.3m.
The second building is depicted on the Second Edition map, being a roofed, rectangular structure to the northwest of the quarry opening. This was identified during the survey, surviving as a rectangular earthwork with earth-fast stone, measuring 7m by 4.32m. Just south of this was an earth-built slipway running down the coastal slope, depicted on the 1971 Ordnance Survey map, which probably post-dated the quarry’s abandonment.
Quarryhouse
The farmstead of Quarryhouse is located south of Ferness quarry. It is depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map as a roofed, ‘L’-shaped structure with a boat-shaped, roofed structure approximately 12m to the west. The Second Edition map shows a similar layout with a square, roofed outbuilding to the northeast of the main building and the addition of a number of enclosure walls between the standing structures.
The main house, Building 1, is significantly higher quality than other vernacular, domestic buildings in Eday, undoubtedly reflecting its location alongside the quarry and the easy access to the necessary skills and stone-cutting tools. There are dressed stone blocks, with stone lintels and sills throughout, and large quoins at each corner. A centrally-placed doorway in the south wall is flanked by large windows, and there are smaller windows in the north wall and the west and east gables.
Both gables have suffered extensive collapse above the level of the eaves but the shape and dressing of the surviving quoins in the uppermost courses suggest the roof was double-pitched. Inside, the walls were plaster-covered and there were central fireplaces in both the east and west walls with a smaller fireplace in the north wall. An internal doorway in the north wall provided access to the adjacent building, Building 2.
Building 2 is the southernmost element of the north-south arm of the Quarryhouse farmstead. It clearly butts against the north-facing wall of Building 1 and a wall scar matching the double-pitched roof of Building 2 can be seen cut into the stonework of Building 1. There is an external doorway in the east-facing elevation and a window in the west-facing elevation. The north gable acts as the south gable of Building 3 and the stonework of these two structures appears to be continuous. While the inside of Building 2 is littered with rubble and roof timbers, a large storage cupboard was visible set into the north wall.
Building 3 is directly north of Building 2. It has two external doorways, directly opposite each other in the east- and west-facing walls and had a double-pitched roof. Directly to the north is Building 4, a barn with an external door in the east wall. This is the only structure within the L-shaped complex with an intact flagstone roof.
Originally, four timber-built animal stalls were arranged along the south wall of the barn, but only two survive today. An open space between Building 4 and adjacent Building 6 is defined by with a stone wall on its north edge and the two buildings were connected by opposing external doorways in their gable ends. The flagstone roof of Building 6 was largely intact. Inside, a timber frame survived against the east elevation with iron fixings for securing cattle and the remains of a lean-to structure were built against the north external wall.
East Quarryhouse (left) and Easthouse. (📷 ORCA)
An enclosure around the west, south and southeast edges of the farmstead had a boat-shaped structure incorporated within its wall that may have been a growing plot. A small structure near the enclosure with a narrow doorway on its east side may have been an outhouse or hen-house.
Fersness quarry building and enclosure
The Ordnance Survey mapping shows a roofed building with an attached enclosure to the west of the quarry workings. The building had been completely robbed of stone, but the raised house platform was still clearly visible during the site survey, along with portions of the enclosure, visible as a low earthwork.
Sources
- First Edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (Orkney LXXXVI.10 (Eday) 1881)
- Second Edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (Orkney LXXXVI.10 1902)
- Hebden, R. 2008. Eday. Orkney’s best-kept secret. The Orcadian Ltd: Kirkwall.