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Rousay, Upper Quandale

Farmstead (Post Medieval)

Site Name Rousay, Upper Quandale

Classification Farmstead (Post Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Quendal

Canmore ID 182044

Site Number HY33SE 64

NGR HY 3737 3175

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/182044

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

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Rousay And Egilsay
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Archaeology Notes

HY33SE 64 3737 3175

A farmstead comprising two unroofed long buildings and three enclosures is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Orkney and Shetland (Orkney) 1882, sheet lxxxiv), but it is not shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1977).

Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 11 December 2000

Activities

Field Visit (13 May 2015)

This farmstead comprises two rectangular buildings, 40m apart, each attached to an enclosure, and a third, free standing enclosure. The NE building (HY 37399 31788) measures 17m from NW to SE by up to 4m transversely within grass-grown stone wall-footings up to 0.7m in thickness and 0.4m in height. There is at least one doorway in the WSW wall and the interior contains three compartments linked by doorways, the central one being furnished with a bed-neuk that projects out from its ENE side. An enclosure (26m NW-SE by 13m) is attached to the NE side of this building and the free-standing enclosure (22m NNW-SSE by 12m) is situated immediately to the W. The SE building (HY 37377 31735) measures 15.2m from ENE to WSW by 3.3m transversely within grass-grown footings up to 0.7m in thickness and 0.3m in height. The remains of a corn-drying kiln are visible within the ENE end and in the compartment nearest it there appear to be two opposed entrances. The WSW compartment is set at a lower level than the ENE one and may be a later addition. It has a doorway in its NNW side. Attached to the SSE side of the building is an enclosure (30m NNW-SSE by 18m) the wall of which has been reduced to a grass-grown bank but which rides over an earlier field bank on the ENE.

Thompson notes ( 1981, 46-7) that in 1841 the 12 acre (4.85ha) farm of Upper Quandale, which was tenanted by William McInlay, had five inhabitants but that it was cleared in 1845. The farmstead is depicted unroofed on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, Sheet LXXXIV.16); a contemporary reference states that the name applied ‘to the ruin of a dwelling house’ (Name Book 16, 30).

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, JRS) 13 May 2015.

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