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Whalsay, 'standing Stones Of Yoxie'

House (Neolithic)

Site Name Whalsay, 'standing Stones Of Yoxie'

Classification House (Neolithic)

Alternative Name(s) Pettigarth's Field

Canmore ID 1308

Site Number HU56NE 4

NGR HU 58723 65216

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1308

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Shetland Islands
  • Parish Nesting
  • Former Region Shetland Islands Area
  • Former District Shetland
  • Former County Shetland

Archaeology Notes

HU56NE 4 5872 6521

(Area HU 585 651) A Neolithic 'temple,' 'The Standing Stones of Yoxie,' lies in Pettigarth's Field and 150yds from the steep cliffs of Yoxie Geo. It was excavated by Calder in 1954-5. The excavation yielded a quantity of stone implements some of which may be early, but many may belong to a secondary IA phase as IA potsherds were found. What is assumed to be an associated 'Priest's House' lies higher up the slope about 100 yds to the west. (HU56NE 5).

Relics from the excavation were donated to the National Museum of Antiquties of Scotland (NMAS) by the Symbister Estate Trustees in 1955-6.

RCAHMS 1946; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1957 (Donations); C S T Calder 1963.

'The Standing Stones of Yoxie', a Neolithic/Bronze Age structure at HU 5868 6522, as described and ilustrated by Calder.

Visited by OS (NKB) 30 May 1968.

Activities

Field Visit (4 August 1935)

Cairn (or mound), Pettigarths Field, Isbister.

This low grass-covered mound (Fig.580) is situated in Pettigarths Field, to the N. of Isbister, and not far from the E. shore of the island. In so far as it can be measured, the diameter of the mound is about 32 ft. The S. and S.E. portion of the circumference is marked out by an alinement of stones set on end or on edge, while other stones are set in the mound itself-in the centre, on a line running N. and S., a pair of uprights 3 ft. and3 ft. 2 in. high respectively and 2 ft. 6 in. apart; a single upright 8 ft. 6 in. W. and another 3 ft. 6 in. E. of the S. member of the pair; and finally two stones on edge which combine with the others to suggest the outline of some construction in the centre of the mound. The alinements of stones to be seen nearer the sea are probably the foundations of old walls.

This monument seems to be known locally as the "Standing Stones of Yoxie."

RCAHMS 1946, visited 4 August 1935·

Excavation (1955)

YUXIE, WHALSAY HU 588653.

The temple site is situated on the lower slopes of Pettigarth's Field a short distance from the cliffs at Yuxie Gco. The structure, of drystone masonry, measures overall 55 by 37 feet. Tt comprises a paved circular forecourt, a long flagged passage, leading to a circular chamber beyond which is an inner chamber with two large portal stones flanking the entrance which faces the passage. The inner chamber is shaped on plan like a clover leaf, and the middle lobe presumably contained an altar as in some Maltese temples.

In construction the body of the temple is built with a concave facade and a rounded back, reminiscent of the " heel-shaped " cairns of Shetland, and the walls average 10 feet in thickness. From each end of the facade has sprung a horn of masonry curving pincer-wise to enclose the forecourt, but one horn is now destroyed.

Relics were few and consisted mainly of the common rude stone implements, and sherds mainly from a later occupation in the Iron Age. The building is assignable to the Late Stone Age, the only closely comparable site known in the British Isles at Staneydale, Shetland having been excavated by the author in 1948.

Calder (DES 1955, 29)

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