TAP Field Report No. 5 A survey of Shetland's gallow hills Joris ...

TAP Field Report No. 5A survey ofShetland’s gallow hillsJoris CoolenDepartment of Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna

TAP Field Report No. 5The Assembly Project – Meeting-places in Northern Europe AD 400-1500 (TAP) is aninternational collaborative research project funded by HERA. HERA is a Joint Research Programme(www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS,MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities Programme.TAP was launched in June 2010 and runs for three years. It is led by the Museum of CulturalHistory, University of Oslo (Dr Frode Iversen) and consists of individual projects based at theCentre for Nordic Studies (UHI Millennium Institute) at Orkney (Dr Alexandra Sanmark), theDepartment of Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna (Dr Natascha Mehler)and the Department of Archaeology, University of Durham (Dr Sarah Semple).website: http://www.khm.uio.no/prosjekter/assembly_project/cover illustration: Prehistoric burial cairn on the Gallow Hill near Huesbreck, Dunrossness, Mainland,

Gallow hillsTable of contentsIntroduction 4Previous research 4Historical background 4Sources 6Methodology 7Discussion of the sites 81) Gallow Hill, Huesbreck, Dunrossness, Mainland 82) Golgo, Sandwick, Dunrossness, Mainland 93) Knowe of Wilga, Cunningsburgh, Mainland 104) Gallow Hill, Scalloway, Mainland 115) Gallow Hill, Tingwall, Mainland 136) Gallow Hill, Walls, Mainland 147) Gallow Hill, Brae, Mainland 158) ‘Gulga’, Gluss, Northmavine, Mainland 169) Watch Hill (Gallow Hill), Eshaness, Northmavine, Mainland 1810) Gallows Knowe, Holsigarth, Mid-Yell, Yell 1811) Gallow Hill, Fetlar 1912) Gallow Hill, Unst 2113) Muckle Heog, Baltasound, Unst 2214) ‘Gallow Hill’, Marrister, Whalsay 2415) Wilgi Geos, North Roe, Mainland 25Comparison of the sites 25Gallow hills and parish division 27Gallows and prehistoric monuments 33Discussion 34Acknowledgements 36Notes 37References 38Appendix IHistorically recorded death penalties and other referencesto execution sites in Shetland 41Appendix II Panoramic photo mosaics 463

TAP Field Report No. 5IntroductionLooking out over Tingwall Loch from theLaw Ting Holm – supposedly the main assemblysite in Shetland from at least the end of the13th till the end of the 16th century (Coolen& Mehler 2010. Coolen & Mehler 2011. Smith2009) – one of the landscape features thatdraws attention is the Gallow Hill (Fig. 1). Theclose spatial and functional connection of theancient court site and the supposed gallowssite has long been recognised. Hence, a studyof Shetland’s assembly sites and their rolein Medieval society should also include theassociated places of execution. This surveyaims to collect the evidence of the known oralleged places of execution in Shetland (Fig.2) and investigate their topographical setting,especially with respect to presumed assemblysites and parish boundaries.Previous researchThe old gallows sites in Shetland havedrawn the attention and aroused the imaginationof both local residents and visitorsfor many centuries. In his Description of theShetland Islands from the year 1822, SamuelHibbert stated that the Gallow Hill in Yellwas ‘an occasional place of execution in thecountry, during the oppressive period whenfeudality exercised its lawless dominion overthe injured udallers’ (Hibbert 1822: 397).He also described another alleged executionsite, known as Hanger Heog, in Unst (see p.22), which he believed to be associated withanother Norse assembly site and a pagansanctuary (Hibbert 1822: 403-407). AlthoughHibberts interpretation of the site is highlyobjectionable (Smith 2009: 38), he was theirst to explicitly date one of Shetland’s executionsites and, moreover, link it to an assemblysite.In 2006, Brian Smith delivered a paperon Shetland’s gallows sites (Smith 2006).The paper dealt with the evidence of formerplaces of execution found in place names andlocal traditions, and tried to interpret thesesites within a historical and landscape con-Figure 1 View of Gallow Hill in Tingwall (right)with the Law Ting Holm in the foreground.text. Smith originally counted thirteen sites,and later added a fourteenth on the isle ofWhalsay 1 . However, he now considers someof these sites problematic (pers. comm. 30May 2011). Nonetheless, they will still be discussedin the present survey.Smith noted several common features ofShetland’s gallows sites: they are all highlyvisible from the surrounding area and can oftenonly be accessed via a steep route; prehistoricstructures (mostly cairns) can be foundat most of the sites; some of the sites areclose to important Medieval settlements, andinally some of them are associated with placenames, which refer to old judicial districts.Historical backgroundThe history of Shetland’s places of executionis of course strongly connected with itsjudicial history. For certain places to be setapart as institutionalised places of execution,known to and accepted by the local societyand embedded in the collective understandingof the landscape, it required a centralauthority, which had the power to both inlictcapital punishment as well as lastingly destinea locale for this purpose. It seems unlikelythat this level of authority was reached beforethe Norse colonisation at the turn of the 9thcentury AD, or even before the annexation ofthe Northern Islands with Norway under therule of Harald Fairhair in 875 2 .The political and judicial organisation ofShetland in the Norse period has been the4

Gallow hills 1 Gallow Hill, Huesbreck2 Golgo, Sandwick3 Knowe of Wilga, Cunningsburgh4 Gallow Hill, Scalloway5 Gallow Hill, Tingwall6 Gallow Hill, Walls7 Gallow Hill, Brae8 Golga Scord, Gluss9 Watch Hill (Gallow Hill?), Eshaness10 Gallows’ Knowe, Mid Yell11 Gallow Hill, Fetlar12 Gallow Hill, Unst13 Muckle Heog, Unst14 Setter Hill (Gallow Hill?), Whalsay15 Wilgi Geos, North RoeFigure 2 Map of Shetland with the location ofthe discussed sites.topic of debate for almost a century (Clouston1914: 429-432. Donaldson 1958: 130-132.Smith 2009. Sanmark, forthcoming). At large,it was probably similar to the organisation inthe Scandinavian mainland and the Norse colonies.Hence, Shetland may have been dividedinto several parishes, each of which had theirown local thing council. The local things wereprobably subjected to one supreme court,an althing. The latter resided in Tingwall atleast from the late Norse period. ThroughoutScandinavia, the althing was the mainlegislative and judicial power, which acted byunrecorded, local laws. However, during thecourse of the Middle Ages, the different althingsbecame more and more dependent on theking and his noblemen. At the same time, thejudicial function of the things became moreprominent, implementing royal, centrally enforcedlegislation rather than local, unwrittenlaws (Sanmark 2006. Smith 2009: 39).The location of some of Shetland’s thingsites can be deduced form place names (Sanmark,forthcoming). Some scholars believethe thing-sites of the Northern Islands to dateback to the ninth century (Fellows-Jensen1996: 26), but Smith has recently argued thatthe known thing-parishes were probably onlyestablished around 1300 (Smith 2009).In general, death penalties, especially byhanging, were rare during the Norse period.It was not until the 11th century that the lawsof the different assemblies in the Norwegiankingdom were started to be recorded. Eventhen, most crimes were sentenced with inesor outlawry, while blood vengeance musthave been common practice well into the13th century as well. Although the Norselaws did prescribe capital punishment in rarecases, the thing-courts had no central executivepower. In Iceland for example, the althingseems not to have executed death penaltiesbefore 1564 (Bell 2010: 31). At the end of the13th century, Shetland’s lawthing adopted thegeneral law issued in 1274 by Magnus Hákonarson,nick-named the Lawmender. Therewere different versions of Magnus’ lawbookfor the individual law districts of (mainland)Norway; Shetland and Orkney adopted theGulathing version, which formed the base ofthe udal law on land ownership still occasionallyinvoked today (Robberstad 1983; Jones1996). The Gulathing law states that a nativethrall, who has committed theft, shall be beheaded(Gulathing 259), but it does not containany other explicit statements on death5

TAP Field Report No. 5penalty. However, several references to thehanging of thieves and traitors can be foundin the Heimskringla sagas, recorded around1230 by Snorri Sturluson.From the second half of the 13th century, thekings of Scotland increasingly gained powerin the Northern Islands. Shetland inally cameunder Scottish rule in 1469, as it was pledgedby Christian I of Denmark-Norway to JamesIII of Scotland for the dowry of his daughterMargaret (Crawford 1983). However, it wasnot until 1611 that Scottish law was fullyadopted in Shetland. Until then, judgementsby the lawthing and (later) the sheriff werestill mainly based on the law issued by MagnusLawmender.In 1564, Lord Robert Stewart received a feuof Orkney and Shetland from his half-sister,Queen Mary of Scotland, and he later acquiredthe earldom and sheriffship of both archipelagos(Anderson 1982. Anderson 1996: 179).Robert appointed his half-brother, LaurenceBruce, as sheriff. Soon after Robert Stewartcame into power, the lawthing was movedfrom its traditional site in Tingwall to Scalloway,Shetland’s new capital. After his deathin 1593, Robert was succeeded by his sonPatrick, who commissioned the building ofScalloway castle (Anderson 1992). Like hisfather, Patrick used his power to exploit theislands for his own beneit rather recklessly(Donaldson 1958: 10 f.). He was arrestedupon charges of treason in 1609 and inallyexecuted in Edinburgh in 1615.From the reign of the Stewarts onwards,we get a good view of judicial practice inShetland from the preserved court books.They document several executions and otherpunishments, which were carried out at thegallows (Appendix I). The oldest known referenceto gallows in Shetland dates from 1574,and most likely refers to the Gallow Hill inScalloway. Smith (2006) believes that the lastexecution in Shetland took place around 1690(Smith 2006). The folklorist James (‘Jeemsie’)Laurenson has claimed that the last witchwas hanged on Fetlar in 1703, but the historicalrecord mentioned by Laurenson is notknown to me. 3 Most of the convicts, who weresentenced to death in the 17th century, werefound guilty of thievery; some, however, werecondemned for witchcraft, and there is onecase each of murder and bestiality.SourcesThe main evidence of former execution sitesin Shetland is found in place names. The nameGallow Hill can be found at least seven times inShetland. Apart from the frequency, the nameis highly remarkable in itself, since more thanninety percent of all place names in Shetlandare of Norse origin and not comprehensible tomodern English speakers (Nicolaisen 1983).Apart from the Gallow Hills, there are fourplace-names, which have been interpretedas derivatives from gálgi, meaning gallows inOld Norse.The only place of execution in Shetland,for which there is historical evidence, is theGallow Hill in Scalloway. Several executions,which took place here in the early 17th century,are documented in the court books ofShetland and Orkney (see Appendix I). Unfortunately,no old maps or scenes that show theexact location of these or any other gallows inShetland are known so far.By the time when the documents start tospeak, Scalloway was the seat of Shetland’smain court, which dealt with all capital offences.Death penalties were only performedin Scalloway. Assuming that at least some ofthe other alleged gallows sites were indeedused for executions, the lack of historical evidencethus provides a terminus ante quem.With one possible exception on Fetlar (seep. 19) none of the sites offers any visible,archaeological evidence for the former presenceof gibbets or gallows. Hence, archaeologyin its traditional sense, as ‘the study ofpast human societies and their environmentsthrough the systematic recovery and analysisof material culture or physical remains’ (Darvill2002: 21), cannot help us much furthereither.In some cases, the morbid history of thesite is recalled by a local tradition. Althoughthese stories form an interesting part of the6

Gallow hillssite’s biography and a wonderful example ofthe cultural meaning of places, we need to beaware that they also have their own culturalbiography and may well have turned up lateror may have signiicantly changed over time.In short, the evidence for the alleged placesof execution needs to be critically assessedfor each site individually. By comparing thenature of the sites and their position in thewider landscape, and compare them to placesof execution in other regions, we might indsimilarities that could give us some more informationabout the history of these intriguingplaces. A Geographical Information System(GIS) provides a valuable tool to analysethe topography of the sites and their relationshipboth with the physical environment andthe historic landscape.MethodologyMost of the sites, which will be discussedbelow, were visited in May and June 2011 toinvestigate their topography and check forthe presence of archaeological features. Onthis occasion, panoramic photos were takenin a 360° angle on every site, using a regularcompact digital camera (Appendix II). Sincethe exact location of the gallows is not knownfor any of the sites, except (perhaps) the oneon Fetlar, the photos were taken from the spot,which offers the widest view of the surroundingarea (and hence also presents the mostvisible spot). The single photos were adjustedand stitched together in Adobe Photoshop.Additionally, a viewshed was created forevery site in ArcMap 10.0. A viewshed modelsthe areas, which are visible from one or severalobservation points, based on a digital terrainmodel (DTM). The accuracy of the viewshedhence depends on the spatial resolutionand vertical accuracy of the used DTM.The viewsheds presented below werecalculated on the basis of the OS LandformPanorama DTM of Shetland (excluding FairIsle), freely available from Ordnance Survey. 4It has a horizontal resolution of 50x50m andvertical resolution of 1m. The OS LandformPanorama DTM was created by interpolationof 10m contour lines, derived from the Landranger®1:50,000 scale map series, which inturn were generated from stereo aerial photographyfrom the 1970s (Ordnance Survey2010: 9).It is assumed that the visibility of the siteand its surroundings are reciprocal, i.e. thatthe site can be seen from all areas, which arevisible from the site. Since the gallows or gibbetswould have risen to a certain height fromthe ground, the observation points were givenan offset of 2m. In some cases, a combinedviewshed was created for several pointsaround the spot from where the photos weretaken, to reduce the effect of sharp drops inthe DTM at grid cell edges and to achieve abetter correspondence with the actual view.The viewsheds do not only help to locatethe landscape features shown on the panoramicphotos, but also allow for a quantitativeanalysis of the view. We can calculate the sizeof the visible area, and also calculate the divisionof the visible land and sea surface. SinceShetland’s vegetation has hardly changed inthe past 3000 years (Bennett et al. 1992), itoffers good opportunities for viewshed analysis;trees being rare, it can be assumed thatthe view across the landscape was almost thesame in the Middle Ages as it is now.7

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 3 Topography of Gallow Hill, Huesbreck.The little star marks the viewshed’s observerpoint (see ig. 4). (Data: Ordnance Survey.© Crown copyright /database right 2010).Forra Ness are visible in the distance, with asmall stripe of the Atlantic behind them. Thebest land view from Gallow Hill is towards thenorth, where it overlooks almost all the landbetween the observer and the Ward of Scousburgh(263 m), located 4.5km to the north. Tothe northeast, one can see the settlements ofBoddam and Dalsetter. To the east, the Lochof Browbreck is visible in the foreground, andwe have a grand view of the North Sea, withthe horizon at a distance of c. 30km. However,the coast itself, which is about 850m from thetop of Gallow Hill, and the voe below Boddamare obscured by the slope.The top of the Gallow Hill is marked bya cairn, which was scheduled by HistoricScotland in 1975. 5 It is surrounded by other, Discussion of the sites1) Gallow Hill, Huesbreck, Dunrossness,MainlandHU 3929 1443The southernmost Gallow Hill is locatedsouth of Boddam (Fig. 3). It is formed by asmall hillock at the east side of a larger butgradual hill. The main road A 970 crossesthe hill between the Gallow Hill and theslightly higher ‘summit’ (68 m) to the westof the road. Despite its moderate elevation,the Gallow Hill offers a ine view of southernDunrossness and can in return be seen from alarge surrounding area (Fig. 4 & 49). The GallowHill overlooks the valley up to the ridgeof Ward Hill (80 m), about 2km to the south,with the top of the Compass of Sumburgh justvisible behind it. The West Voe of Sumburgh,opening out into the Atlantic Ocean, appearsto the southwest, adjaced by Fitful Head.However, since the land continues to slopeup in this direction for about 350 m, the landlying between the top of the hill and the landscapefeatures mentioned before is largelyobscured. To the Northwest, Loch Spiggie and Figure 4 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Huesbreck.(DTM: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).8

TAP Field Report No. 5to the northwest of Golgo, around the Stove,are obscured by the gradual hill slope, butone can see the settlements of Houlland, Leebittenand Sandwick. To the north, the viewextents to the Ward of Veester (257 m) at theborder of Cunningsburgh. To the northeast,one can see parts of Greenmow and Helliness.The hill overlooks No Ness to the (south)east,with Mousa behind it, and offers a wide viewof the North Sea of almost 150°, the horizonlying again at a distance of c. 30km.According to a report by Elizabeth Stout,traces of ancient burials were found at Golgoin 1911 (Smith 2006).3) Knowe of Wilga, Cunningsburgh, MainlandHU 4236 2664The Knowe of Wilga is a small, yet remarkableoutcrop knoll on the east slope of theWard of Veester, on the border between Cunningsburghand Dunrossness (Fig. 7). It liesabout 180m above see level and can only bereached by a steep climb (Fig. 8). Jakobsen(1897: 118 f.) referred to the hill as Wulga,which ‘stands for Gwulga, (…) another formof ‘Golga’. This reading of the name is supportedby a local tradition, according towhich the notorious sheep thief Kail (or Kil)Hulter was hanged here. A written version ofthe story, published in the Shetland Times inFigure 8 Topography of the Knowe of Wilga,Cunningsburgh. (Data: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).1877 (27 January), sets the story in the early18th century. The story shows many similaritiesto the abundant folk stories dealing withoutlaws from Iceland (Sigurðsson 2006), andis obviously much older. Interestingly, thename of Kil Hulter is very similar to that ofKit Huntling, known from Orkney (B. Smith,personal communication). The latter hasbeen interpreted as a derivation of the OldNorse ‘kett-hyndla’ (cat-bitch), an evil, femaledog-cat hybrid, which (just like the Medievaloutlaws) haunted inaccessible, marshy uplandareas, such as the Burn o’ Kithuntlins inthe Birsay Hills on Mainland Orkney (Towrie1996-2011). The igure of the ‘ketthontla’ inFigure 7 The Knowe of Wilga (Cunningsburgh)seen from the southeast.Figure 9 Remnants of a chambered cairn onthe Knowe of Wilga, overlooking Cunningsburghand Bressay to the northeast.10

Gallow hills able quartzite outcrop, known as the WhiteStane of the Knowe of Wilga. It is separatedfrom the Knowe of Wilga by a boggy depressionand is not as exposed (and therefore notas visible) as the cairn.Since the Knowe of Wilga is set at a rathersteep slope, the vista covers an angle of almost160° towards the east of the cairn, whilethe view towards the west is limited by thenearby hillside (Fig. 10 & 51). Although theview from the cairn is quite spectacular, coveringan area of almost 3000km², it mainlycovers distant areas, while the closer neighbourhoodis largely obscured.To the north, we can see the hilltops of HooField on the opposite site of the Burn of Catpund,the latter being known for its Norsesteatite quarry. Catpund itself is obscured bythe slope below the Knowe of Wilga. The siteoffers a wonderful view of Cunningsburgh tothe northeast, extending as far as Bressay andon clear days even to Whalsay. To the southeastwe see Mousa, and turning further in thesame direction we can see the headland of NoNess. Because of the higher elevation of theKnowe of Wilga, the horizon at the open sealies at c. 50km distance. 4) Gallow Hill, Scalloway, MainlandFigure 10 Viewshed from the Knowe of Wilga,Cunningsburgh. Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: OrdnanceSurvey. © Crown copyright /database right2010).turn resembles the Icelandic monster Grýla(Jónasdóttir 2010: 21). Hence, both the storyitself and the name of its main character seemto be part of Shetland’s Norse heritage. It isdoubtful, whether the story of Kil Hulter hasa kernel of truth. However, it is possible, thata common story passed on across the Norsecolonies was connected to existing locales,such as the place of execution.The Knowe of Wilga is marked by the remnantsof a large chambered cairn, which wasbuilt on top of the natural, rocky hillock (Fig.9). About 120m to the west, there’s a remark-HU 3991 3963The Gallow Hill of Scalloway lies directly tothe west of the town (Fig. 11). The site of thegallows is described as ‘the west hill of Scallowaycallit the gallow hill abone Houll’ in thecourt book of Shetland in 1615 (Barclay 1967:116). (Wester)Houll was a group of houses onthe west side of Scalloway, the name of whichstill survives in Houl Road. In recordings of1616 and 1625 the Gallow Hill is referred toas ‘the place of execution’ on the ‘hill aboveBerrie’ (Donaldson 1991: 43 & 124). Berry isa farm on the north side of Scalloway, about500m from Houll. Morphologically, the GallowHill is a small spur on the hillside of theHill of Berry (103 m), at the edge of the steepbase towards the town.11

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 11 Topography of Gallow Hill, Scalloway.(Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).According to local residents, there is a lowknoll of reddish soil about 100 yards west ofthe television mast on Gallow Hill. 7 The soilappears to be burnt, and local tradition has itthat this was the stake of the last witch burnings.8 In an internet forum thread on Shetland’sgallows sites, one user commented thatthe burnt spot may be much younger and mayhave been caused by bonires held during theannual Scalloway Gala until the 1990s. 9 Yet,the spot seems to have been known to localsfor quite a long time. Indeed, the court booksshow that several women, who had been accusedof witchcraft, were strangled and burntat the Gallow Hill, while the male convictswere usually hanged. The hill to the southwestof Scalloway, on the Ness of Westshore,is known as Witch’s Hill. The name appearsin J.G. Bartholomew’s Survey Atlas of Scotlandof 1912 10 and the half inch to the milemap of Shetland issued in 1926 by the samepublisher. 11Be this as it may, the place on Gallow Hill,which apparently shows traces of a majorire, is not particularly visible from Scallowayor the surrounding coastal area. Since we mayassume that visibility was a major factor forthe location of the gallows, they may havebeen located closer to the steep drop on thehillside above Scalloway. There is a naturalknoll on this side of the hill, which offers anexcellent view of the town and the adjacentvalley. The panoramic photo was taken fromhere.The viewshed (Fig. 12) represents the combinedviewsheds from two observer pointsspaced 30m apart to overcome obstructionsat the edges of DTM grid cells. The cumulativeviewshed corresponds better to the actualvista shown on the panoramic photograph(Fig. 52).The area, which can be seen from this spot,is much smaller than at the sites discussedbefore. This is mainly due to the fact, that itis not possible to see the open sea from herein any direction, but the visible land surfaceis deinitely smaller too. The view towardsthe west and northwest is largely obscuredby the up-sloping hillside of the Hill of Berry.Towards the northeast, we see Tingwall Valley,with Veensgarth and Laxirth in the distance.Towards the east, the site overlooksScalloway, with the Hill of Easterhoull behindit. The site offers the best vista towards the Figure 12 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Scalloway.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).12

Gallow hillssouth, where we can see parts of Trondra,East and West Burra and the west coast ofsouthern Mainland, and even Fitful Head inthe far distance.5) Gallow Hill, Tingwall, MainlandHU 4105 4279Figure 13 Topography of Gallow Hill, Tingwall.(Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).Figure 14 Outcrop knoll on the summit ofGallow Hill, Tingwall. View towards the north.The Gallow Hill of Tingwall is located westof Loch Tingwall (Fig. 13). The summit lies atthe edge of the moorland behind the farm Kirkasetter.It is formed by a small knoll markedby a cairn (Fig. 14). The summit of Gallow Hilllies at slightly over 100m ODN, more than90m above the water level of Loch Tingwall.Some interesting structures can be seenabout 400m south of the cairn. 12 At HU 40934242, there is a group of big stones, whichseems to consist of various features (Fig. 15 &16). The major concentration (Fig. 16, A) maybe the remnants of a chambered cairn. About15m to the southwest, there is a derelict, rectangularenclosure of about 10 x 5m (Fig 16,B). It consists of a single row of stones and isoriented WNW-ESE. It seems to be open atthe NW side. A local amateur archaeologistreports to have dug two small ‘test pits’ on theinside of the enclosure several years ago, andto have found pieces of charcoal at six inchesdepth. 13ABCDFigure 15 Remnants of a cairn and stonelinedenclosure, possibly of prehistoric age,on Gallow Hill, Tingwall. View towards thenortheast.Figure 16 Aerial photograph showing theremnants of a cairn (A), enclosure (B), oldield wall (C) and modern clearing for feedingsheep (D) on Gallow Hill, Tingwall. (Photo: ARSF/ NERC, courtesy of Alexandra Sanmark / TAP.)13

TAP Field Report No. 5 Figure 17 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Tingwall.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).A derelict, NNE-SSW oriented ield wall runspast the burial cairn and the enclosure to theeast (Fig. 16, C). About 50m west of this groupof structures, there is a large, oval enclosuresurrounded by a low, earthen bank (Fig. 16,D). While at irst sight it could be taken for anarchaeological site, it appears to be a clearingmade for feeding sheep some years ago. 14According to Michael Leask of Asta, there isa circular enclosure about 200 yards northwestof the site mentioned before, which hebelieves might delimit a burial ground associatedwith the gallows. 15 I did not ind theenclosure during my short survey of GallowHill. At the moment, there seems to be littleevidence to support the interpretation of aburial site.None of these structures is marked on theOS map or recorded by Historic Scotland, butat least the cairn quite obviously represents aprehistoric monument.The viewshed (Fig. 17) was created bycombining the viewsheds from three differentpoints on the summit of Gallow Hill, toachieve the closest correspondence to the actualvista from the small cairn on the summitof Gallow Hill (Fig. 53).To the north and northeast, the site overlooksTingwall valley, Whiteness and Laxirth.The view reaches as far as Nesting, Whalsayand the Out Skerries, and – according to theviewshed – even to Fetlar, more than 50kmaway. The site offers an excellent view of LochTingwall and the Loch of Asta and the hills atthe opposite side of both lakes. Towards thesouth, the view reaches down the valley andClift Sound and includes Scalloway, Trondra,East Burra, the Ness of Ireland and FitfulHead in the far distance. Towards the southwestand west, the site overlooks the moorlandbetween Tingwall and Whiteness Voe,with several small lakes. Behind it, one cansee the Scalloway islands, parts of Sandsting,Foula and the Atlantic. To the northeast, theview includes the Loch of Griesta and reachesas far as Weisdale.6) Gallow Hill, Walls, MainlandHU 2556 5104The Gallow Hill of Walls is located at thehead of the Voe of Browland, which extendsFigure 18 Topography of Gallow Hill, Walls.(Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright /database right 2010).14

Gallow hillsnorth of Gruting Voe, overlooking the Bridgeof Walls (Fig. 18). Its summit lies at 68m ODN.The area is well-known for its prehistoriclandscape, including the famous site of Scordof Brouster (Whittle et al. 1986), which is locatedonly 500m north of the summit of GallowHill. Other prehistoric monuments in theneighbourhood include four scheduled cairnsat the southern summit and slope of GallowHill (Historic Scotland, site index nr. 5562). 16There are no indications as to where thegallows may have stood. A cumulative viewshed(Fig. 19) was created for ive points – oneon the summit of Gallow Hill and one in thecentre of each of the four DTM grid cells surroundingthe summit – since the viewshedusing a single observer point on the summitwas found to be very patchy and unlikely torepresent the actual view. As I did not visitthe site, the accuracy of the viewshed has notbeen checked.Even with the ive observer points, the viewshedshows the visible area from the summitof Gallow Hill to be highly fragmented. Althoughthe view does extend very far in somedirections, it includes only few larger, contiguousareas. The site offers a good view onthe Voe of Browland to the southeast, and itis even possible to see parts of the west coastand some summits of south Mainland. Theview of the open sea to the south is largelyobscured by the Ward of Culswick and the isleof Vaila, but they do leave some small strips inthe view open, where one could get a glimpseof the Atlantic. Towards the southwest, wecan see the higher elevated parts of Foula. Towardsthe west, the view includes the higherhills on the Walls peninsula. One can see RonasHill in North Roe, located 30km north ofthe observer point; the Button Hills in Deltingappear to the northeast, while to the east, theview extends to Weisdale Hill.0 5 km7) Gallow Hill, Brae, MainlandHU 3774 6810The Gallow Hill at Brae is located east of thevillage (Fig. 20). It is part of a wider uplandarea with several spurs and summits stretchingfrom Busta Voe in the west to Dales Voe inthe east, the highest of which are the Button0 2 kmFigure 19 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Walls.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).Figure 20 Topography of Gallow Hill, Brae.(Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright /database right 2010).15

TAP Field Report No. 5Hills (252m). The summit of Gallow Hill liesat slightly over 180m ODN. Again, the onlyindication for the former presence of gallowsis the name itself. The only thing that givesus a small hint about the possible location ofthe gallows is the Gallow Burn, which has itssource on the slope between Gallow Hill andLadies Hill, and runs down to the west.Archaeological sites around the Gallow Hillinclude a scheduled cairn at the base of LadiesHill (Historic Scotland site index nr. 3558)and two scheduled cairns in Burravoe (indexnr. 3469), both sites located c. 1.5km from thesummit of Gallow Hill. The panoramic photo (Fig. 54) was takenfrom the slope of Gallow Hill about 600mnorthwest of the actual summit (which wasmistaken for the nearby Riding Hill), abovethe source of Gallow Burn. The viewshed (Fig.21) represents a cumulative viewshed fromive observation points around the summit,and hence does not entirely correspond to theview on the photo.The view from the summit of Gallow Hillmainly extends to the west, the view towardsthe east being largely obscured by the nearbyhills. Towards the southwest, the view coversmuch of Aithsting and the Walls peninsula.Due to the moderate slope at the top of thehill, the western hillside is hardly visible fromthe summit (as opposed to the panoramicphotograph, which was taken from the hillside),but it is possible to see the village ofBrae at the base, as well as Busta Voe andthe eastern part of Muckle Roe. Behind MavisGrind, one looks out over St. Magnus Bay, withsome hilltops on Papa Stour being visible tothe WSW. The horizon on the open sea lies atc. 52km distance. Towards the northwest, theview covers the uplands of Northmavine, withRonas Hill towering above the rest. Towardsthe north, the view includes Sullom Voe,opening out to Yell Sound.8) ‘Gulga’, Gluss, Northmavine , MainlandHU 3379 7660? Figure 21 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Brae.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).This site was discussed by Brian Smith(2006). Apparently, Da Scord o Gulga is ‘thename of a notch in the hillside just south ofa hill with a cairn on top of it’. Smith believedthat the name Gulga might then refer to thehill with the cairn. Jakobsen (1897, 118)mentions a hill called Golga in Northmavine,but unfortunately, he does not give a preciselocation. Neither Golga nor the Scord o Gulgais marked on any edition of the OS map andboth names seem to be of very local character.However, judging from Smith’s description,Da Scord o Gulga may well be the same as HamaraScord near South Gluss. The hill wouldthen be the one west of South Gluss, which16

Gallow hillsFigure 22 Presumed location of the hill Gulganear Gluss, Northmavine (Data: Ordnance Survey.© Crown copyright /database right 2010).is marked as Yamna Field on the OS map andwhich indeed has a cairn on top (Fig. 22).Smith admits that the identiication of thegallows site at Gluss is highly speculative, andhe now prefers not to include the site in hisstudy of Shetland’s places of execution (pers.comm., May 30 2011). Yet, for reasons thatwill be discussed below, the site is included inthis study, although the evidence is of coursevery weak. Tentatively, a viewshed was createdfor the summit of the aforementioned hill,which lies at 162m ODN (Fig. 23). It must besaid that this presents a highly visible site; towardsthe (north)east, one can see the entirewestern coast of Yell, a large part of Delting,and even the North Sea beyond, including theSkerries. Towards the south, the view extendsat least to Weisdale; if we are to believe theviewshed, even Fitful Head is visible, locatedmore than 60km to the south. Towards thewest, the site offers a grand view of St. MagnusBay, including Papa Stour and Foula. Figure 23 Viewshed from Gulga(Yamna Field), Gluss, Northmavine.Legend: see ig. 4(DTM: Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right 2010). 17

TAP Field Report No. 59) Watch Hill (Gallow Hill), Eshaness,Northmavine, MainlandHU 2590 7809?Figure 24 Topography of Watch Hill (GallowHill?), Eshaness (Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right 2010). Smith mentions a Gallow Hill at Eshaness,located ‘more or less on the boundary withthe rest of Northmavine’. The name doesnot appear on any edition of the OS map.The Shetland Amenity Trust’s Place NamesProject has mapped the site on Watch Hill, aknoll to the east of Braewick (Fig. 24). The topof the hill is marked by a circular cairn, possiblyof Bronze Age date (Historic Scotland siteindex nr. 6150). 17Located 500m from the coast, but at an elevationof 106 m, the site offers a splendid viewof St. Magnus Bay and the Atlantic covering anangle of 200° (Fig. 25). The horizon at sea lies40km away. The site overlooks Eshaness tothe west; towards the south, one can see thecoastline of south Northmavine, Muckle Roe,West Mainland, Papa Stour and Foula. To thenortheast, one can see Ronas Hill, while to theeast, the view includes several hilltops on Yell.Both the Gallow Hill of Brae and the hilltop atGluss supposedly named Gulga are visiblefrom the top of Watch Hill.10) Gallows Knowe, Holsigarth, Mid YellHU 4878 9122? Figure 25 Viewshed from Watch Hill (GallowHill?), Eshaness. Legend: see ig. 4(DTM: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright /database right 2010).Smith (2006) mentioned a site called GallowsKnowe at Holsigarth (spelled Halsagarthon OS maps), a deserted croft opposite the infamousWindhouse near Mid Yell (Fig. 26). Herefers to a tradition recorded by the folkloristLaurence Williamson. According to this story,two men, who were found guilty of stealingcattle belonging to the lord of WindhouseCharles Neven, were hanged at the GallowsKnowe in the early 18th century. As Smithpoints out, it is very unlikely that an executiontook place at this site as late as the 18thcentury, but he believes the story may have amore ancient origin. Although this is admittedlya daring thought, it is remarkable thatthe Windhouse, known as the ‘most haunted18

Gallow hills Figure 26 Topography of the Hill of Halsagarth,Mid Yell, with the approximate locationof Gallows Knowe (Data: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010). house’ in Shetland (and beyond), is associatedwith a place of execution in a local tradition.In this case, the reputation of the house mayhave inspired the story, but it could also bethe other way round; similar to the reservationagainst the last inhabitant of Golgo, thenegative connotation of Windhouse may beolder than the house itself and originate froman older, fearful place.Be this as it may, the name of the GallowsKnowe is neither marked on any historicalor modern map, nor is it generally known tolocal residents. Smith now considers the evidencefor this site too weak and prefers not toinclude it in his study of gallows sites anymore(pers. comm., May 30 2011). Due to thepoor localisation of the site, little can be saidabout its visibility. Tentatively, a viewshedwas calculated for the spot on the northernslope of the Hill of Halsagarth (Fig. 27), wherethe panoramic photos were taken (Fig. 55). Itmust at least be close to the alleged GallowsKnowe. Compared to the other sites, the visibilityappears rather limited. However, theview includes both Whale Firth in the westand (parts of) Mid Yell Voe in the east.Figure 27 Viewshed from the Hill of Halsagarth(approxiamte location of Gallows Knowe), MidYell. Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).11) Gallow Hill, FetlarHU 5919 9070The Gallow Hill of Fetlar is located at thewest side of the island. It is a large hill withgradual slopes on all sides, except for the west,where it has steep cliffs to Colgrave Sound(Fig. 28). Its summit lies at 106m ODN.The Gallow Hill of Fetlar is the only placeknown in Shetland, where possible remainsof the execution site can still be seen today.About 750m SSW of the television mast and200m from the coast, there is a knoll with aremarkable enclosure on it (Fig. 29). The enclosureis formed by a low turf wall (thougha stone wall might be buried beneath) up to40cm high and about 1m wide at the base(Fig. 30). It is slightly trapezoidal; the side19

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 28 Topography of Gallow Hill, Fetlar.The star marks the location of the square enclosure(Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).Figure 29 The enclosure on Gallow Hill, Fetlar,set on top of a natural low mound. Viewtowards the south.Figure 30 Earthen bank on the east side of thesquare enclosure on Gallow Hill, Fetlar. Viewtowards the north.lengths are 22-24m on the north, west andeast sides, while the south side measures c.29m. The bank is highest on the north side,which is also the highest part of the terrain,while at the deepest spot, in the south, it canonly be vaguely recognised. Smith (2006)mentions a possible gate on the east side, butthis was neither observed in the ield, nor canit be seen on the satellite imagery shown onGoogle Earth 18 (Fig. 31). Apart from the enclosure,the satellite photos clearly reveal tracesof peat extraction along the coast on the westside of the enclosure.The enclosure is marked on the irst editionof the OS County Series 1:10,560 (Sheet XVII),issued in 1882, as an old (!) sheepfold. 19 AsSmith pointed out to me, there are several reasonswhy this is an unlikely interpretation. 20In Shetland, sheepfolds were usually roundor oval shaped and located on the shoulder ofa hill, along hill-dykes, or at the coast, whereit would be easier to collect the sheep. Sincethe enclosure on Gallow Hill lies in open terrain,it would be very hard to drive sheep intoit, unless it had lead-fences associated withit. Moreover, the enclosure would be exceptionallylarge for a regular sheepfold. Finally,there is a strong local tradition that the siterepresents an old execution place, which wasirst recorded by T.A. Robertson and J.J. Grahamin 1964 (p. 51), quoting the folklorist J.Laurenson. They stated that ‘the hole in theGallow Hill where the gallows stood can stillbe seen’. Indeed, there is a hole more or less inthe centre of the enclosure, with at least onestone visible at the side. However, Laurensonrecalled that the stones, which used to line thepit on Gallow Hill, were removed by some boyshunting rabbits. 21 Laurenson also mentionedtwo stones at both sides of the executionsite, on which according to the tradition thejudges sat during the witch trials. 22 However,there are no visible large stones on or nearthe enclosure today. According to Laurenson,the last witch executed on Fetlar in 1703, butthis date seems not to be conirmed by anywritten evidence. Laurenson also stated thathanging was the usual punishment for witcheson Fetlar, as opposed to Scalloway, where20

TAP Field Report No. 5top of the hill forms a plateau. The actual summitis not very distinctive, but it is marked byan OS benchmark. It lies at 99m ODN, betweentwo small ponds. The benchmark standswithin an interesting structure, recorded bythe RCAHMS as site number HP50SE 23 (Fig.34). 25 It comprises several small and larger,partly interconnected circular drystone walls.According to the RCAHMS database, this isa look-out shelter, built from the stones of avery large cairn. The cairn was subject to severalexcavations in the 19th century. As theirst edition of the OS Country Map series 1:10,560 notes, stone cists were found here in1825, apparently containing several humanskulls. Fourty years later, the site was excavatedby James Hunt (Smith 2011), who foundthe remains of a human skeleton with somelimpet shells (Hunt 1866, 297). About 100mto the south, there is another cairn, which apparentlyalso yielded stone cists in 1825. Nextto it is an old sheepfold known as the Pundof Gallow Hill. On the southern hillside, 650msouthwest of the summit, there is a large,heel-shaped chambered cairn scheduled byHistoric Scotland (index nr. 7667). 26The panoramic photo was taken from the OSbenchmark at the summit of Gallow Hill (Fig.57). A cumulative viewshed was calculatedfor the summit and four additional points atthe corners of the respective DTM grid cell(Fig. 35). The site offers an excellent view ofColgrave Sound and the surrounding islands,including Uyea, Fetlar, Hascosay and Yell. Theeast coast of Yell is almost entirely visible.The view reaches as far as Whalsay or evenNorth Nesting to the south and Ronas Hill tothe west and across Unst to the north. The siteoffers a view of the open sea to the northwest,east and south, the horizon lying at a distanceof 40km.Figure 34 Remnants of a prehistoric burialcairn on Gallow Hill, Unst, apparently reusedas an outlook shelter and destroyed by earlyexcavation . 13) Muckle Heog, Baltasound, UnstHP 6315 1081 Muckle Heog is a knoll on the east side ofa chain of hills between Baltasound and Haroldswick(Fig. 36). Its summit lies at 140mFigure 35 Viewshed from Gallow Hill, Unst.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).22

Gallow hillsFigure 36 Topography of Muckle Heog, Baltasound,Unst. (Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right 2010).ODN. Although Smith (pers. comm., May 302011) is now sceptical about this site, severalsources recount the tradition that this sitewas used as a place of execution.In 1774, George Low wrote about a sitecalled Hanger Heog. He was shown a ‘heapof stones’ on the top, which was ‘called bytradition a place of execution’ (Low 1879).At the foot of the hill was another stone heap,‘called the House of Justice, from which oneascends by steps to the former. Tradition says,that whatever criminal ascended the steps ofHanger Heog never came down alive’. The sitepresented a key site for the reconstructionof the ancient judicial system in Shetland toSamuel Hibbert in 1822 (p. 406). His accountseems to be based on Low’s, since he usesvery similar words. He adds that ‘in conirmationof the account, two bodies, supposedto have been executed criminals, were, aboutsixty years ago, found buried in disorder nearthe base of the lower heap of stones’. Surprisingly,Hibbert (1822: 269) interprets the siteas a Scandinavian temple elsewhere, erectedby the irst Norse settlers upon their arrivalin Haroldswick. He also believed the placeof execution on Hanger Heog was associatedwith what he interpreted as an assembly sitemarked by three concentric circles at CrussaField, about 1.5km to the west (Hibbert 1822:405 f.). 27 Between the alleged assembly siteand the place of execution there was anothersimilar monument, which according toHibbert was a sanctuary, to which a convict Figure 37 Viewshedfrom Muckle Heog, Unst.Legend: see ig. 4 (DTM:Ordnance Survey. © Crowncopyright /database right2010).23

TAP Field Report No. 5could try to escape after his trial; if he managedto reach it safely, his life was preserved,but anybody was free to pursue and kill himon his way there. There is a similar story inTingwall, featuring either the steeple of TingwallKirk (Brand 1701 [1883]: 184) or the socalled Murder Stone at Asta (Fojut 2006: 116)as the sanctuary, to which a convict could tryto lee.All structures on the hills north of Baltasoundthat were mentioned by Low andHibbert are in fact prehistoric burial cairns.Some of them were excavated by J. Hunt andR. Tate in 1865 (Hunt 1866. Tate 1866), afteran initial ind of human remains and soapstonevessels on the Muckle Heog the previousyear (Roberts 1865) had awakened theirinterest. Tate (1866: 342) also mentions thetradition of the place of execution in his report,which allows us to identify Hanger Heogas the Muckle Heog.As Smith (2009: 38) rightly states, ‘everystep in Hibbert’s reconstruction is fantasy’.Both Hibbert’s and Tate’s accounts seem toheavily rely on Low’s, and neither of themcites any contemporary source to conirm thetradition. There is no archaeological evidenceto support the tradition, at least if we do notattach too much value to Hibbert’s interpretationof the human remains from the so calledHouse of Justice. Of course it needs to bequestioned if the laymen, who had excavatedthe cairns at Muckle Heog and the House ofJustice even before Tate’s expedition, wouldhave noticed any difference between Medieval,deviant burials and a prehistoric communalgrave. Finally, the place name HangerHeog is suspicious too and might refer to asteep, overhanging hill rather than a gallowssite (Smith 2006). However, given the traditionand the location of the site, it should notbe altogether dismissed as a possible place ofexecution.The viewshed represents a cumulativeviewshed of the summit of Muckle Heog andone point in each of the four adjacent gridcells of the DTM (Fig. 37). The site offers agood view of Unst both towards the north andsouth, including Balta Sound, Haroldswickand Hermaness. The southern part of Unstis largely obstructed by the Hill of Caldwickand Valla Field, but interestingly, the summitof Gallow Hill is visible. Towards the south,the view includes the northern coast of Fetlar,as well as the summit of Fetlar’s Gallow Hill.Towards the southwest, the view reaches tosome hilltops on Yell and Mainland. The opensea can be seen towards the (south)east,west, north and northeast; the horizon lies c.45km away.14) ‘Gallow Hill’, Marrister, WhalsayHU 5480 6388?As Smith reported in an internet forum 28 ,he was informed about another Gallow Hill atMarrister on Whalsay after his lecture in 2006.However, the name is not marked on any mapand could so far not be veriied. Perhaps it isanother name for Setter Hill, since this is theonly distinct hill near Marrister (Fig. 38). Thesite was mapped, but the evidence is consideredtoo weak to attempt further analysis (includinga viewshed), as long as the name andlocation of the site are not conirmed.Figure 38 Topography of Setter Hill (GallowHill?), Whalsay. (Data: Ordnance Survey. ©Crown copyright /database right 2010).24

Gallow hillsWilgi Geos should probably not be includedin the list of gallows sites in Shetland. It waslisted for completeness, but was not includedin the following analysis.Comparison of the sitesFigure 39 Topography of the Wilgi Geos, NorthRoe. (Data: Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright/database right 2010).15) Wilgi Geos, North Roe, MainlandHU 3444 9163The Wilgi Geos is an inlet at the northerncoast of North Roe (Fig. 39). It has been suggested,that the name Wilgi Geos (very similarto the Knowe of Wilga in Cunningsburgh)might also be derived from Old Norse gálgi.The Wilgi Geos is a remote place, and notparticularly visible. Although boats mightpass entering or leaving Sand Voe, the gallowswould not have been visible unless they wereplaced at the head of one of the neighbouringpromontories, or indeed higher up the hill. Inthis case, it would be surprising that the inletinstead of the promontory was named afterthe gallows.The site is located 3km from the pre-ReformationSt. Magnus church in Houll, which,as we shall see, does constitute a commoncharacteristic of Shetland’s gallows. However,there would have been more suitable placesfor this gruesome purpose closer to the settlementat Houll.Apart from the name, nothing indicates,that the site was used as a place of execution.Even if the name derives from gálgi, it may benamed after an overhanging rock. I agree withSmith (pers. comm., 6 June 2011) that theAlthough Smith (2006) highlighted the highvisibility of all the gallows sites, a comparisonof the viewsheds shows that there are in factlarge differences. The total area, which can beseen from each site, varies from less than 40to almost 3,000km² (Fig. 40). The most visiblesite is the Knowe o Wilga, while – surprisinglyperhaps – the Gallow Hill of Scalloway isleast visible.The huge difference in the visible area ismainly caused by the visibility of the opensea. The sea can be seen from all sites, and inall cases sea surfaces account for more thanhalf of the visible area; in 10 out of 12 cases, iteven accounts for more than 90 % of the visiblearea. The total land surface visible fromeach site varies from 16 to 134km². Again, theGallow Hill of Scalloway has the lowest score,but the ranking of the other sites is completelydifferent. The dubious site of Gluss overlooksthe largest land surface, followed by the GallowHills of Brae and Fetlar.However, these numbers are somewhatmisleading; since the area, which is coveredby a certain angle, gets larger with increasingdistance, even a small strip of the sea visibleat the horizon represents a huge area. Moreover,due to the curvature of the earth, thedistance to the horizon is much larger fromhigher elevated points than from a point closeto sea level. This again leads to an exponentialincrease of the visible area towards the horizonfor higher elevated sites.Although it is amazing just how far one cansee from most sites, it is of course unrealisticthat the gallows would have been visible from40km distance; even though the site itselfmay have been visible, the gallows and theirinvoluntary companions were much too smallto be seen with the naked eye. Hence, it wouldbe interesting to analyse the visibility of the25

TAP Field Report No. 5direct surroundings, since this may indicateif the sites were potentially meant to be seenfrom afar and may hence have a more symboliccharacter, or if they would have been effectivelocations to impress the local passers-by.Although we do not know what the gallowsin Shetland may have looked like, they areunlikely to have been monumental enoughto be clearly discernible from more than 3kmdistance. Hence, the total visible area andthe visible land and sea surface within a radiusof 3km were calculated for each site (Fig.41). This corresponds to a maximum area of28.3km². It must be stressed that the inaccuracyof the viewshed caused by the resolutionof the DTM plays a larger role at this scale.The total visible area within 3km from eachsite varies from 17.3 to 6.6km². The largestarea can be seen from Muckle Heog in Unst,while the Gallow Hill of Brae has the mostlimited view of the surrounding area. Again,Scalloway is at the bottom of the list, directlyafter Brae, the visible area covering 6.9km².The viewshed analysis within a limitedcircle gives a clearer impression of the importanceof the visibility from the sea. The visiblesea surface (including inlets) in the directsurroundings varies greatly. From the GallowHill of Tingwall, the sea cannot be spottedwithin a radius of 3km at all. On the opposite,the sea represents 70 % of the area visiblewithin this circle from the Knowe of Wilga.Putting it the other way round, there are onlyfour sites, which are more widely visible fromthe sea in the direct surroundings than fromland. These are the Knowe o Wilga, the GallowHills of Fetlar and Unst and the Watch Hill inNorthmavine.Summarising the above results, we can concludethat the gallows sites were potentiallyhighly visible indeed (taking into account thatwe do not know the exact spot of any of the gallows,except perhaps those of Fetlar, and thatthe above results are a best-case scenario).More importantly, most locations seem not tohave been chosen to be primarily visible forthe advancing sailors, but rather seem to forma compromise: while being visible from afar Figure 40 Diagram of the total land and seaarea visible from the discussed sites. The doubtfuland poorly localised sites in Mid-Yell andWhalsay are not included in the diagram. Figure 41 Diagram of the total visible landand sea area within a radius of 3km fromthe discussed sites. The doubtful and poorlylocalised site in Mid-Yell is not included in thediagram.26

Gallow hillsboth from the sea and land, they must haveformed a very confronting sight to the peoplemoving about the surrounding land. In Scalloway,wide visibility of the gallows seems notto have been a major concern at all; however,they may have been perfectly visible from thetown, the castle and the harbour.Gallow hills and parish division The parish division in the late 16th andearly 17th century can be reconstructed onthe basis of the report on the complaints ofthe commons and inhabitants of Shetlandof 1576 (Balfour 1854: 13-92), the courtbooks (Barclay 1962. Barclay 1967. Donaldson1954. Donaldson 1991), and a list ofecclestical ‘beneices’ in Shetland written byRev. James Pitcairn between 1579 and 1612(Goudie 1904: 155-158). The latter showsthat the parishes formed both administrativeand ecclestical units and corresponds tothe description of the different (ecclestical)parishes given by John Brand in 1701 (p. 125-146).Most parishes, which appear in thesedocuments, comprise several communitiesor isles. Since the districts are not alwaysgrouped the same way, the total number ofparishes ranges from nine to thirteen. However,the districts are essentially the same andlargely corresponded to the present parishesin Shetland.In general, we can reconstruct at least tenparishes:- Nesting, Lunnasting, Whalsay and Skerries.The Skerries are listed together withFetlar, Unst and Yell in 1576.- Fetlar- Unst- Yell- Northmavine- Delting. In 1576, it is listed as Delting andScatsta.- Walls, Sandness, Aithsting and Sandsting.Walls is listed separately in 1576 and inPitcairn’s list of ecclestical parishes. It alsoincluded Papa Stour. Figure 42 Judicial districts (parishes) in Shetlandaround 1600 with the location of gallowhills and other possible gallows sites.Parishes: 1 Dunrossness; 2 Burra & Gulberwick; 3Tingwall, Whiteness, Weisdale & Bressay; 4 Walls,Aithsting & Sandsting; 5 Nesting, Lunnasting &Whalsay; 6 Delting; 7 Northmavine; 8 Yell; 9 Fetlar;10 Unst.- Burra and Gulberwick. The parish also includedQuarff and Trondra, but these are notalways mentioned. In 1603, the parish wasgrouped together with Tingwall, Whiteness,Weisdale and Bressay, in 1604 with Bressayonly.- Dunrossness- Tingwall, Whiteness, Weisdale and Bressay.Bressay is listed separately in 1576,while it is grouped together with Burra inPitcairn’s list of ecclestical parishes and in thecourt book of 1604.27

TAP Field Report No. 5There is a remarkable correspondencebetween the distribution of the gallows andthe parish division listed above. Apart fromthe smallest parish of Burra and Gulberwick(also including Quarff), each of the parisheshas at least one alleged gallows site (Fig. 42).Interestingly, there is only one site namedGallow Hill in each of them, except for Yell,which has none, and Tingwall, which has two.The Gallow Hills of Scalloway and Tingwallwere probably not used at the same time; theformer was probably taken into use after thelawthing was moved from Tingwall to Scallowayin the late 16th century and can hencebe considered as the successor of Tingwall’sGallow Hill (Smith 2006). It is also strikingthat most of the sites lie in the interior of theparishes. This is most obvious for the sites insouth and west Mainland and the more dubioussites in Northmavine and Yell. The GallowHills of Unst and Fetlar are the only exceptions,since they are both located at the westcoastof the islands, facing the neighbouringislands (and parishes). This also applies to thealleged Gallow Hill of Whalsay, but as we haveseen this island did not constitute a separateparish. Indeed, it is surprising, that there isno Gallow Hill in the parishes of Nesting andLunnasting, but one on Whalsay instead.The Gallow Hill of Brae is a bit harder tojudge: it is located very centrally, but alsooverlooks the border of Northmavine.Apart from Scalloway, there is no obviousrelation between the gallows sites and thevenues of the local courts held in the early17th century (Donaldson 1958: 133-136)(Fig. 43). Some of the gallows sites are relativelyclose to a court site, as in Unst (2.3km)and Delting (2.9km), but most of them arenot. This is hardly surprising, since the localcourts probably did not have the power to in-lict capital punishment. Although the districtcourts were presided over by the same judgeas the main court in Scalloway, there seem tohave been different levels of judicial power, asin most of Europe at this time. Capital crimeswere only brought before the Lawthing orhead court in Scalloway. The Court Books of Shetland only document one case, in whichthe convict was sentenced to death by a districtcourt. This concerns the case againstChristopher Johnston from Scatstay, whowas convicted of repeated theft by the courtof Delting at Wethersta in 1602 (Donaldson1954: 18 f.). As far as I know, this is also theearliest known death sentence in Shetland. Instandard wording, Johnston was sentenced‘to be taine to the gallow hill and thair to behangeit be the crage quhill he die, in exempill Figure 43 Location of court sites mentionedin the courtbooks between 1600 and 1615 withthe location of gallow hills and other possiblegallows sites. The parishes correspond to ig.42.Court sites: 1 Neap; 2 Gardie; 3 Still; 4 Ueyasound;5 Islesburgh; 6 Aywick (Eawik); 7 Wethersta (Woddirsta); 8 Twatt; 9 Houss; 10 Sumburgh (Soundbrughe);11 Scalloway; 12 Graveland; 13 Burravoe;14 Brough; 15 Skeldvoe; 16 Sand; 17 Ustaness; 18Hillswick; 19 Urairth.28

Gallow hillsFigure 44 Location of pre-reformation parishchurches (after Cant 1975) gallow hills andother possible gallows sites.Parish churches: 1 St. Matthew / Cross Kirk,Quendale; 2 St. Magnus?, Sandwick; 3 St. Colme?,Cunningsburgh; 4 St. Olaf, Gunnista; 5 unknown,West-Burra; 6 St. Magnus, Tingwall; 7 St. Mary?,Weisdale; 8 St. Mary, Sand; 9 unknown, Twatt; 10St. Paul, Kirkigarth; 11 St. Margaret, Sandness; 12St. Olaf, Olnairth; 13 St. Magnus, Laxobigging; 14St. Magnus / St. Gregory?, Hillswick; 15 St. Magnus?,Houll; 16 St. Olaf, Ollaberry; 17 St. John, Reairth;18 St. Olaf, Breckon; 19 St. Magnus, Hamnavoe; 20St. Mary, Haroldswick; 21 St. John, Baliasta; 22 St.Olaf, Lundawick; 23 Cross Kirk, Papil; 24 St. Olaf,Kirkabister; 25 St. Margaret, Lunna; 26 Cross Kirk,Kirkness; 27 St. Olaf, Whiteness.of utheris’. Unfortunately, the text does notreveal if this refers to the Gallow Hill in Brae(overlooking Wethersta) or to the one in Scalloway.The local courts of the early 17th centurywere usually held at the manors of the fouds(bailiffs) or other oficials. Although most ofthe manors were located in or nearby a majorsettlement, they do not necessarily representthe old centre of their parish (Smith 2009:43). Since it has been assumed that Shetland’sgallows sites are indeed older, we need to lookfor other possible associations.The old parish churches may give a betterclue in this respect. Indeed, there is a strikingcorrelation between the gallows sitesand the location of the pre-Reformation parishchurches listed by Cant (1975) (Fig. 44).The distance varies from 550m (Sandwick)to 5.2km (Brae); 10 of all 14 sites are locatedless than 3km from a Medieval parish church.This applies both to the Gallow Hills as wellas the gulga-names. The most striking examplefor this is Dunrossness. The Gallow Hillof Huesbreck lies 2.5km from St. Matthew’schurch (Cross Kirk) in Quendale, which wasabandoned in 1790. 29 The Knowe of Wilgalies 1.5km from St. Columba’s church in Mail(Cunningsburgh), while Golga lies only 550mfrom the old parish church of Sandwick. 30 Thestrong link between the gallows sites and thepre-Reformation parish churches seems toconirm that the latter hold valuable information on the old administrative (and judicial)division of Shetland. Cant (1996: 166) statesthat Shetland Medieval, ecclestical parishescorresponded with thing-parishes and weregenerally divided into thirds, each with achurch, one of them being the main parishchurch.As said before, few documents present aclue to the administrative units before thereign of the Stewarts. Based on the numberof original parish churches in each of the districtsmentioned by Pitcairn, Clouston (1914:430 f.) drew a parallel between the parish divisionof Iceland, Orkney, the Isle of Man andShetland. This administrative model generallyinvolved a division into quarters and thirds atmultiple levels. According to Clouston, thisapparently typical Norse administrative systemhad its origins in the organisation of theScandinavian homelands of the settlers, goingback to the Germanic Iron Age. Hence, he be-29

TAP Field Report No. 5lieved Shetland’s parishes to be ‘very, very oldindeed’ (Clouston 1914: 432).The thing-element in the name of some ofthe parishes indicates a Norse origin. It hasbeen noted before that the thing-parishesare all located in the central part of Mainland,which lacks clear geographical boundaries(Donaldson 1958: 130. Smith 2009: 41 f.). Tothe names still used today (Delting, Nesting,Lunnasting, Aithsting, Sandsting, Tingwall),two more names can be added, which appearin a document of 1321: Þvæitaþing andRauðarþing. The former may have been locatedin the west of Shetland, possibly in thepresent parish of Walls, while the latter mayhave been in, or even correspond to Northmavine(Jakobsen 1897: 102. Smith 2009: 42).The name Neipnating, recorded in the early16th century and in 1628, probably refers toNesting (Smith 2009: 41).Smith (2009: 42) points out that there areno thing-parishes in Orkney, and that Shetland’sparish things may hence have beenformed around 1300, after Shetland’s separationfrom the Earldom of Orkney. He doesagree, though, that Shetland may once havehad the same, symmetrical division into quarters,eighths and thirds known from Norway.The former division of Fetlar into three smalldistricts was still recalled by a local lady at theend of the 19th century (Jakobsen 1897: 117),although it must have been outdated for manycenturies by then. A Norwegian document of1490 mentions the districts Vogaiordwngh(‘the quarter of the voes’) in the west andMawedes otting (‘the eighth at the narrowisthmus’) in the north of Shetland (Smith2009: 43). Although the names themselvescan be identiied as Walls and Northmavine– parishes still existing today – Smith stressesthat the parish division and borders may stillhave been very different.Another recurring name, which refers toan older judicial system, is the ‘Herra’ (fromOld Norse hérað, meaning county or disrict)(Jakobsen 1897: 117. Smith 2006. Smith2009: 43). The name occurs four times inShetland: in Yell, Fetlar, Lunnasting and Tingwall.The Herra in Yell now refers to a small Figure 45 Location of ‘ting-’ and ‘herra’-placenames and gallow hills (see ig. 44 for legend).Marked sites: 1 Tingwall; 2 Sand; 3 Aith; 4 Neap; 5Lunna; 6 Dale; 7 Herra, Lunnasting; 8 Herra, Fetlar;9 Herra, Yell.area on the west side of Whale Firth. It wasformerly called the ‘Oot Herra’, as opposed tothe ‘In Herra’, which lay at the opposite sideof Whale Firth. The Herra in Fetlar refers tothe settlement area to the north and east ofPapil Water. Again, the area is divided intoan Upper Herra and the Lower Herra, eachincluding a few farmsteads and located about1km apart. The Herra in Lunnasting lies at thesouth end of Vidlin Voe, between the villagesVidlin, Gillsbreck and Orgill. In Tingwall, thename appears in a slightly different form: thearea to the north and west of Tingwall Lochis referred to as the Harray in a document of1525 (Stewart 1987: 130). The name survives30

Gallow hillsas Herrisdale (Park) and Herrislea (House /Hill) in Veensgarth.It is generally assumed that the old thingparishes,as well as the héruð each had theirown, local assembly. The only assembly sitewhich can be located with some certainty is atTingwall (from Old Norse Þingvöllr, ‘the ieldsof the parliament’). According to the tradition,the assembly met at the islet called Law TingHolm, at the north side of the lake (Coolen &Mehler 2010: 6-9). There is a very close spatialrelationship between the assembly site,the parish church and the Gallow Hill: theholm is located only 340m from the churchand exactly 1km from the summit of GallowHill.It seems logical to believe that the localassemblies of Delting, Nesting, Lunnasting,Aithsting and Sandsting were held in theDale, Neap, Lunna, Aith and Sand respectively(Smith 2009: 41). Sand and Lunna each hosta Medieval parish church, while Neap is atleast close to the former parish church ofKirkabister. There are old church sites in Aithand Dale too, but they are not documented asparish churches. However, none of these allegedthing-sites is close to any of the gallowssites (Fig. 45). As for the herra-names, thereis an interesting association of the Herra witha parish church and a Gallow Hill in Fetlar, allbeing located within 2km from each other.The Herra in Mid Yell is about 3km from Holsigarth,but as said, this site is very dubious.Although there are several pre-Reformationchapel and church sites known in the vicinity,none of them is recorded as a parish church.The same applies to the chapel site in Vidlin,which is located about 0.5km from the Herrain Lunnasting.One could argue that the places of executionmight have been located near the boundaryof a judicial district rather than close to thecourt site. In Medieval and Early Modern Europe,gallows were often erected near districtboundaries for both practical and symbolicreasons (e.g. Piech 2010: 314. Mol 2007, 281ff.). Reynolds (2009, 219-27) has describedthe strong association between Anglo-Saxonexecution cemeteries and Early Medievalhundred boundaries. Since we know littleabout the Medieval parish division of Shetland,it is almost impossible to reconstructthe parish boundaries. However, no matterwhere the boundaries were, the area betweenthe alleged thing-sites mentioned above iscompletely devoid of known gallows sites. Ofthe present thing-parishes, only Tingwall andDelting include a gallows site. Although theformer is close to the border of Whiteness, itdoes not overlook any access route betweenthe two parishes. Moreover, Whiteness is nothing-parish. The Gallow Hill of Brae in Deltingseems more convincing: it is close to theborder of Northmavine, and everybody whowould cross Mavis Grind and the wider isthmusof Brae would have been confronted withthe sight of the gallows.There is, however, an interesting relationshipbetween the gallows sites and post-Medieval parish borders (Fig. 46). The latterwere taken from a modern map showing theparishes listed in the Old Statistical Account(1791-99). 31 Alternatively, the parishes canalso be modelled based on the descriptionsof Pitcairn and Brand and the location of Medievalparish churches. Assuming that eachparish church lies more or less in the centreof its associated parish, the parishes can bemodelled as Thiessen polygons (Fig. 47). Ofcourse this is a highly theoretical and perhapssimplistic approach, since it does not accountfor the actual geography. Surely, the actualdivision was more complex. However, theThiessen polygons show strong similaritieswith the parishes listed in the Old StatisticalAccount, and as long as we acknowledge thetheoretical character of this approach, thereseems to be some justiication for it.At irst sight it seems striking that there isnever more than one gallows site per parish,except in the already discussed case ofTingwall. However, this is simply a consequenceof the already discussed correlationbetween the gallows sites and Medieval parishchurches. The Thiessen polygons show31

TAP Field Report No. 5 Figure 46 Parish division of Shetland asdocumented in the Old Statistical Account(1791-99) with the location of gallow hills andpossible gallows sites.Parishes: 1 Dunrossness; 2 Sandwick; 3 Burra; 4Cunningsburgh; 5 Tingwall; 6 Bressay; 7 Whiteness;8 Foula; 9 Sandsting; 10 Walls; 11 Nesting; 12 Sandness;13 Aithsting; 14 Whalsay; 15 Papa Stour; 16Lunasting; 17 Delting; 18 Northmavine; 19 South-Yell; 20 Fetlar; 21 Unst; 22 North-Yell; 23 Mid-Yell;24 Weisdale; 25 Lerwick; 26 Quarffanother, more interesting thing: several of thediscussed gallows sites are indeed close to the(theoretical) border of different parishes. Thebest examples are the Know of Wilga, whichlies at the border of Cunningsburgh and Sandwick,and the Gallow Hill of Walls, which isclose to the border of Sandsting, ‘guarding’the Bridge of Walls. If we assume that Deltingwas divided into several parishes, with St.Magnus church in Laxobigging and St. Olaf’schurch in Olnairth as the principle churches,Figure 47 Pre-reformation parish churches(after Cant 1975, see also ig. 44) and theirassociated parishes modelled as Thiessen-polygonswith the location of gallow hills and possiblegallows sites.the Gallow Hill of Brae would be exactly at theborder. The same applies to Gulga in Gluss, locatednear the theoretical border between theparishes of St. Ofaf’s church in Ollaberry andSt. Magnus’ (?) church in Hillswick, as well asto Muckle Heog, at the border between theparishes of St. Mary’s church in Haroldswickand St. John’s in Baliasta. The so-called GallowsKnowe at Holsigarth in Mid-Yell is rightat the border between Mid- and South-Yell,both of which are listed separately in the OldStatistical Account. As stated above, the GallowHills of Unst, Fetlar and Whalsay can alsobe considered to be located at the border oftheir parishes.However, it needs to be stressed that not all32

Gallow hillsof the discussed sites follow this rule. The GallowHill of Huesbreck, Golgo in Sandwick andthe Watch Hill (Gallow Hill?) in Northmavineare in the centre rather than at the border oftheir respective parishes.Summarising the above, it is hard to see anyconnection between the gallows place namesand the alleged thing-sites or the division ofthe thing-districts. There is, however, a verystrong link with the pre-Reformation parishchurches and the early modern parish division.Most of the gallows sites are close toan old parish church and directed towardsan internal parish boundary; that is, near theborder of several parishes, which must havebeen joined together before the 17th century.Gallows and prehistoricmonumentsOne of the common features that Smith(2006) identiied in his analysis of Shetland’sgallows sites was their close associationwith prehistoric monuments. Most of thesemonuments can be identiied as Neolithicand Bronze Age burial cairns. Only in Golgo inSandwick, the place of execution is reportedto have been a standing stone, which, unfortunately,does not survive.The association of (Medieval) gallows withprehistoric monuments, especially barrows,is well known from all over north-westernEurope (Meurkens 2010; Reynolds 2009).However, we need to distinguish betweenprehistoric barrows called Gallow Hill, andlarge, natural hills, which bear the same nameand have prehistoric burials on their summitor slope. In the former case, the namerefers to the prehistoric monument itself(although the nature of the monument neednot have been apparent to those, who coinedthe name); in the latter case, the name refersto a natural hill, which just happens to hostone or more prehistoric sites. In the lattercase, the association between the prehistoricmonument and the place of execution is lessevident and needs further veriication. Forthe gallows sites in Shetland, this is very dif-icult, since we do not know the exact locationof any of the gallows. To assume that they mayhave been located on or near the prehistoricmonuments would be an obvious circularargument.Of the 13 sites discussed above, seven arehilltops or hillocks with a cairn on their summit.At least three of them are problematic:the summit of the Gallow Hill in Tingwall ismerely marked by a small, undateable stoneheap, which does not seem to have formed animpressive monument at any time. There aresome more elaborate structures nearby, butagain, we do not know the exact location ofthe gallows. The same applies to the GallowHill of Unst, which has some truly spectacularcairns, but lacks a distinct summit. For thetime being, the evidence for the gallows sitein Gluss is very weak, and its identiication,as Smith (2006) argued, is partially based onthe presence of a prehistoric cairn. Hence, thissite should be excluded from the discussion toprevent circular reasoning.In ive cases, there is no evident associationof the gallows site with any prehistoric monuments.There are burial cairns on the GallowHills of Walls and Brae, but they are located atthe base or on the slope of the hill. The GallowHills of Scalloway and Fetlar and the hill ofHolsigarth do not host any visible prehistoricsites at all.To this it must be added, that it is harder toind a hill without visible prehistoric remainsin Shetland than one with. In my opinion,there is not enough evidence to postulate ageneral association of the Medieval places ofexecution in Shetland with prehistoric (sepulchral)monuments.However, the situation is slightly differentfor the vanished standing stone at Golgo inSandwick. Here, the tradition directly describesthe use of a possibly prehistoric monumentas a gibbet. There is a similar examplefrom Aberdeenshire: the Hanging Stone onGallows Hill near Rosehearty, a tall standingstone now included in a ield wall (Fig.48), is also said to have been used to hangpeople. 32 In fact, numerous standing stones33

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 48 The Hanging Stone on GallowsHill near Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire. Photo:drew/amj http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/12294/gallows_hill_hanging_stone.html#images(accessed November 7, 2011).called Hanging or Hangman’s stone can befound all across Great-Britain and Ireland(Crawford 1922; Grinsell 1985). 33 The nameeither refers to their declination, or indeedto a place of execution or gibbet site. In manycases, there is a local tradition of a thief, whowas accidentally strangled at the stone as hisbooty (usually a sheep or a deer) fell on theother side of it, drawing the thief up againstthe stone by the rope, by which he held hisloot. As O.G.S. Crawford noted, the story probablyrefers to the gallows, which ended the lifeof many a (sheep) thief. Some of the HangingStones are deinitely too small to have beenused as a gibbet themselves, and even the biggerstanding stones may not have been verypractical for this purpose. Instead, the stonesseem to have been ancient boundary markers.As mentioned before, gallows were usually locatedat judicial boundaries all across Europe.Their spatial association with ancient anddistinct boundary markers such as standingstones or burial mounds not only conirmedthe boundary in a strong way, but also justi-ied the authority of those who controlled theplace by claiming its ancient origin.DiscussionIn conclusion, 15 sites have been suggestedas possible places of execution in Shetland.Nine are called Gallow Hill (although two ofthem are marked by different names on OSmaps), while four sites bear names whichmay be related to the Old Norse word for gallows,gálgi. Of the latter sites, two are recalledas hanging places in local traditions, while theWilgi Geos in Northroe present an unlikelysite for a public execution place and shouldprobably not be included in this list. The tworemaining sites have been referred to as GallowsKnowe and Hanger Heog by local residentsat some point.In itself, these different names are interesting.According to the Shetland Place NameProject, 95% of all place names in Shetlandare of Norse origin. Hence, it is surprisingthat most of the suggested places of executionbear an English name. There could be severalreasons for this:A. Since the English gallow-names areeasier to identify, the mapping may simplybe biased towards these, while not all of theolder names may have been identiied yet.The gallow-names are more striking than theNorse counterparts, not only because of theirmeaning, but also since they stand out amongthe vast majority of placenames of Old-Norseorigin. The latter are much harder to interpret.However, the number of alleged places ofexecution in Shetland already is surprisinglyhigh considering the size and population densityof the islands, and unless the sites weresuccessively used for short periods, it seemsunlikely that many remain to be discovered.Moreover, this argument does not explainwhy some of the sites kept their Norse name,while others got an English name.B. The gallows formed such an impressiveand important element in the landscapethat the name of the execution sites was‘translated’ as the old Norn language, a localNorse dialect, was replaced by a Scottishdialect. Norn is believed to have been extinctsince the late 18th century, but of course thiswas only the end of a gradual process. Thechange of language relects the shift of themain contacts with overseas areas, which in34

Gallow hillsturn are strongly connected with the territorialdependency. In any case, the sites couldonly have been renamed if their (previous)function was known and still considered relevant.The Gallow Hill of Tingwall was probablyused as long as the main assembly washeld there (i.e. until c. 1570), and thus wasstill in use as the Scottish took over the reignof Shetland. But again, it needs further explanationwhy some sites kept their old names,while others were renamed.This leads to another possible conclusion:C. The gallow-names refer to later placesof execution than the gálgi-names. If the interpretationof the latter names (Golga andWilga being derived from gálgi) is indeed correct,the sites were apparently not in use, orrather not deemed relevant anymore by thetime Shetlanders used Scottish language. Thelocal traditions about the Knowe of da Wilgaand Golgo in Sandwick show that the sinisteruse of the site is in fact recalled in some wayuntil today. But as Smith rightly states, latergenerations were probably not even aware ofthe link between the origin of the name andthese traditions. Interestingly, Golgo bore anEnglish name – Gallowtoon – at some pointaccording to Stewart (1987, 116), but in thiscase, the older name appeared stronger thanthe new one.There is one more remarkable clue, whichseems to have been overlooked so far. Asshown above, some of the sites bearingNorse names are associated with traditionsof executed thieves, while the Gallow Hills arelinked with stories of witch trials. Althoughthe number of sites and local traditions isagain too small to prove anything, this distinctionseems to relect the judicial practices ofthe Medieval and the Early Modern period.As discussed above, there is no obviousrelationship between the alleged places ofexecution and the presumed Medieval assemblysites, although it must be stated thatboth are rather poorly understood due to thescarcity of evidence. The only notable exceptionis Tingwall – the main assembly site andthe only one, which has been located so far.However, all the discussed sites were foundto be close to a Medieval parish church. Again,this needs explanation.Of course it is unlikely that the places ofexecution were directly linked to the church.However, the example of Tingwall shows thestrong connection between the church andthe political establishment, which marked theMedieval and early modern society. As historicaldocuments show, the church of Tingwallwas even occasionally used as a venuefor the assembly. The strong ties between theadministrative and the clerical organisation isalso underlined by the post-Medieval parishdivision. Since the separation of church andstate is a relatively recent concept in westernsociety, this situation is hardly surprising.Moreover, the parish churches simply formedan essential part of the main settlement areas,just as the assembly sites or (later) courts andtheir associated places of execution.There are two possible conclusions fromthe above: either have we been looking forthe assembly sites in the wrong places, or thehanging places that we know simply startedto be used after the old thing-sites were abandoned.The latter conclusion would it wellwith the fact that most of the gallows sitesbear English names.Arguably the most signiicant observationmade in this survey is the strong relationshipbetween the distribution of the gallowssites and the parish division known from late16th century and younger sources. AlthoughSmith (2009) is sceptical about the historicalcontinuity of the administrative organisation,I am surprised that he did not mention thisapparent correlation. As shown above, eachof the ten main parishes has one Gallow Hill(or, in the case of Yell, Gallows Knowe). Thetwo Gallow Hills in the parish of Tingwall canbe considered successors and thus counted asone.In my opinion, both the place name evidenceas well as the location of the Gallow35

TAP Field Report No. 5Hills suggest that most of them are youngerthan the Norse period. As historical sourcesshow (or rather do NOT show), none of thehills apart from Scalloway seems to have beenused for executions after 1600, or probablyeven 1570.Hence, the gallows may present a key to thehistory of Shetland’s judicial system beforethe reign of the Stewarts. Indeed, they suggestan important administrative re-organisationbetween the time of the Norse localassemblies and the central authority of theStewarts. If the Gallow Hills are indeed connectedwith the late-Medieval parishes, thelatter must have developed after Scottish hadsucceeded Norwegian as the oficial or mainlanguage. Although individual parishes mayindeed date back to the Norse period, Smithis justiiably sceptical about the ancient originof Shetland’s parish division. Perhaps, the reorganisationof Shetland’s parishes followedon the transfer of sovereignty from Denmark-Norway to Scotland.Tentatively, I would like to draw the followinghypothesis. Some of the gallows-sitesdiscussed above possibly date back to theNorse period, suggesting that death penaltieswere executed at several places throughoutthe islands. Whether this means that local assembliesalso had the power to inlict deathpenalties, or even each had their own placeof execution, we do not know. Neither do weknow exactly if and how the political organisationof Shetland changed after the islandsbecame part of Scotland. Perhaps, the oldassembly places (apart from Tingwall) wereabandoned and replaced by courts in newparish centres during the re-organisationof the communities into new parishes. Eachparish may still have had the power to inlictdeath penalties, and thus had a place of execution.Only at the end of the 16th century,Robert Stewart appointed one central courtin Scalloway, with its nearby execution site,and the other gallows may have been takendown.However, there is another possible explanationfor the fact that only the Gallow Hill ofScalloway is mentioned in historical documents:perhaps the other gallows were notused for executions at all, but only to eventuallydisplay the bodies of executed criminals.In this case, they may well be contemporaneous,perhaps even designated by the infamousStewarts. None of the historical sources tellsus what happened to the bodies of the convicts,who were executed in Scalloway. It wasrather common in most of Europe in the lateMiddle Ages and early modern period, thatconvicts were publicly executed in or near atown and their bodies subsequently put ondisplay elsewhere. Gibbets were usually locatednear the border of the jurisdiction area.In very severe cases, the bodies were evensplit in parts and distributed over severalgibbets in all four corners of the jurisdictionarea. A similar procedure might have been followedby the Stewarts. Indeed, one documentof 1597 tells us how Patrick Stewart threatenedto erect gibbets on ‘every great holm andisle’ to scare off trespassers, as sheep thieveskept coming to his isles (Ballantyne & Smith1999, 116).Thus far, the evidence for the old places ofexecution in Shetland is very meagre, and itis hard to say anything about their exact locationand age. Perhaps, new documents orarchaeological evidence will once help us toreconstruct this dark side of Shetland’s historyin more detail. Until then, the gallows willkeep their secrets and remain silent as thegrave – silent as those, who unluckily endedtheir lives on the gallows.AcknowledgementsThis survey was made possible by a grant of theAustrian Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF)and the support of The Assembly Project – Meetingplaces in Northern Europe (AD 800-1500). Iam very grateful to Brian Smith for his support,interest and willingness to share and discussinformation on the gallows sites. Furthermore, Iwould like to thank Eileen Brooke-Freeman andLauren Doughton of Shetland Amenity Trust forsharing their knowledge of place-names.36

Gallow hillsNotes1Brian Smith, forum post on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25952&sid=42e9744c4b9e6304b446eaf47a9ebc22 (Posted 30 September 2006; accessed 31 January 2011).2This date is given in the written sources and is seen as a political statement of power rather than an actualrelection of events. Most likely this took place later in time. (Alexandra Sanmark, pers. comm. 17November 2011).3James Laurenson, oral statement recorded on 13 July 1976. Sound record on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/86149/16 (accessed 21 November 2011).4https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/products.html (accessed 24 June 2011)5Index Nr. 3727. http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2300:35:461010551245308::::P35_SELECTED_MONUMENT:03727 (accessed 20 June 2011)6Posts by users ‚Rasmie‘ and ‚Vivari‘ on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1444&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25, (posted Nov. 28, 2008 and Dec. 23, 2008 respectively; accessed 20 June2011).7Posts by ‚Njugle‘ on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25952&sid=42e9744c4b9e6304b446eaf47a9ebc22 (posted 26 and 30 September 2006 and 11 October 2006 respectively; accessed 21 June2011).8The story was also recalled by Bertha Umphray in 1958. Sound recording on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/35070/1 (accessed 21 November 2011).9Post by ‚MuckleJoannie‘ on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25952&sid=42e9744c4b9e6304b446eaf47a9ebc22, (posted 12 October 2006; accessed 21 June 2011).10http://maps.nls.uk/atlas/bartholomew/view/?id=1201 (accessed 21 June 2011).11http://maps.nls.uk/series/view/?sid=74467019 (accessed 21 June 2011).12A short video of the site is availalbe on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0oBrfyyQx4 (uploaded11 February 2009; accessed 22 June 2011).13http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0oBrfyyQx4 (uploaded 11 February 2009; accessed 22 June 2011)and http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1444&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25&sid=58b26fd4825ed1e4f181b963a3747b6b (post by user ‚brunalf‘, posted 3 November 2008; accessed 22 June2011).14M. Leask, personal communication (22 June 2011).15http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9agcj5ABng (uploaded 11 February 2009; accessed 22 June 2011);http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1444&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25&sid=58b26fd4825ed1e4f181b963a3747b6b (posts by ‚brunalf‘, posted 5 and 19 November 2008 respectively; accessed22 June 2011).16http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2300:35:3814470527081259::::P35_SELECTED_MONUMENT:05562 (accessed 23 June 2011).17http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2300:35:2163592107452750::::P35_SELECTED_MONUMENT:06150 (accessed 24 June 2011).18http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=60.595787,-0.92040106&z=17&t=h&hl=nl (accessed 4 November 2011)19http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch/view/?sid=74430916 (accessed 24 June 2011).20B. Smith (after discussion with Ian Tait), personal communication 6 June 2011.21James Laurenson, oral statement recorded 21 September 1975. Sound record on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/78536/1 (accessed 21 November 2011).22James Laurenson, oral statement recorded 21 September 1975. Sound record on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/78535/1 (accessed 21 November 2011).23James Laurenson, oral statement recorded in September 1978. Sound record on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/81264/1 (accessed 21 November 2011).24James Laurenson, oral statement recorded 21 September 1975. Sound record on http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/78536/1 (accessed 21 November 2011). As this source was discovered after themanuscript of this report had been inished, the second alleged gallows site on Fetlar could not be furtherinvestigated.25http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/43/details/unst+gallow+hill/ (accessed 24 June 2011).26http://data.historic-scotland.gov.uk/pls/htmldb/f?p=2300:35:3981330868991222::::P35_SELECTED_MONUMENT:07667 (accessed 24 June 2011).37

TAP Field Report No. 527http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/187/details/unst+crussa+ield+rounds+of+tivla/ (accessed 25June 2011).28Brian Smith, forum post on http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25952&sid=42e9744c4b9e6304b446eaf47a9ebc22 (Posted Sept. 30, 2006; accessed 23 July 2011).29http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/570/details/the+shure+cross+kirk/ (accessed 3 July 2011).30http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/180983/details/sandwick+parish+church/ (accessed 3 July 2011).31http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/sas/sas.asp?action=public&passback= (accessed 3 July 2011). The mapwas adapted from http://shetlopedia.com/images/c/ca/PicParishesOSA_coloured_small_numbered.gif(published 18 July 2007, accessed 3 July 2011).32http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/12294/gallows_hill_hanging_stone.html (posted by ‚drewbhoy‘12 August 2009, accessed 4 July 2011).33See also http://www.celiahaddon.co.uk/standing %20stones/hangmans.html (published 21 October2008; accessed 4 July 2011).ReferencesAnderson, P.D. 1982. Robert Stewart, Earl ofOrkney, Lord of Shetland, 1533-1593. Edinburgh,John Donald.Anderson, P.D. 1992. Black Patie: the life andtimes of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney,Lord of Shetland. Edinburgh, John Donald.Anderson, P.D. 1996. Earl William to EarlPatrick: a survey of the history of Orkneyand Shetland from 1468 to 1615. In: D.J.Waugh (ed.), Shetland’s northern links– language and history. Edinburgh, Scottishsociety for northern studies: 174-185.Balfour, D. 1859. Oppressions of the sixteenthcentury in the islands of Orkney and Zetland.Edinburgh.Ballantyne, J.H. & Smith, B. 1999. The Shetlanddocuments 1580-1611. Lerwick, ShetlandTimes.Barclay, R.S. 1962. The court book of Orkneyand Shetland 1612-1613. Kirkwall, KirkwallPress.Barclay, R.S. 1967. The court books of Orkneyand Shetland 1614-1615. Scottish HistorySociety 4th series, Vol. 4. Edinburgh, ScottishHistory Society.Bell, A. 2010. Þingvellir: archaeology of theAlthing. MA-thesis, University of Iceland.http://skemman.is/en/item/view/1946/6937(published 18 November 2010, accessed3 July 2011).Bennett, K.D. et al. 1992. Holocene History ofEnvironment, Vegetation and Human Settlementon Catta Ness, Lunnasting, Shetland.Journal of Ecology 80/2 (June 1992):241-273.Brand, J. 1701 [1883]. A brief description ofOrkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness.Reprinted from the original edition of1701. Edinburgh, William Brown.Cant, R.G. 1975. The Medieval churches andchapels of Shetland. Lerwick, Shetland Archaeologicaland Historical Society.Clouston, J. S. 1914. Records of the earldomof Orkney 1299-1614. Edinburgh, ScottishHistory Society.Coolen, J. & Mehler, N. 2010. Geophysicalsurvey at Tingwall, Shetland 2010. TAPField Report 1. http://www.khm.uio.no/prosjekter/assembly_project/pdf/Tingwall_report%281%29.pdf (accessed 3 July 2011).Coolen, J. & Mehler, N. 2011. Archaeologicalexcavations at the Law Ting Holm, Tingwall,Shetland, 2011. Data structure report/ Interim report. TAP Field Report 4. http://www.khm.uio.no/prosjekter/assembly_project/pdf/Tingwall%2520DSR%2520small.pdf (accessedNovember 7 2011)Crawford, B. 1983. The pledging of the islandsin 1469: the historical background. In: D.J.Withrington (ed.), Shetland and the outsideworld 1469-1969. Aberdeen UniversityStudies Series 157. Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress: 32-48.38

Gallow hillsCrawford, O.G.S. 1922. Hangman’s stones.Notes and Queries S12-XI (222): 50-52.Darvill, T. 2002. The Concise Oxford Dictionaryof Archaeology. Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress.Donaldson, G. 1954. The court book of Shetland1602-1604. Edinburgh, ScottishRecord Society.Donaldson, G. 1958. Shetland life under EarlPatrick. Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd.Donaldson, G. 1991. The court book of Shetland1615-1629. Lerwick, Shetland Library.Fellows-Jensen, G. 1996. Tingwall: the signiicanceof the name. In: D. Waugh (ed.), Shetland’snorthern links: language and history.Edinburgh, Scottish Society for NorthernStudies:16-29.Fojut, N. 2006. Prehistoric and Viking Shetland.Lerwick, Shetland Times.Goudie, G. 1904. The Celtic and Scandinavianantiquities of Shetland. Edinburgh/London,Blackwood & Sons.Grinsell 1985. Hangman’s stones and theirtraditions. Folklore 96/2: 217-222.Hibbert, S. 1822. A description of the Shetlandislands, comprising an account of their geology,scenery, antiquities and superstitions.Edinburgh, Archibald Constable and Co.Hunt, J 1866. Report on explorations intothe archaic anthropology of the islands ofUnst, Bressay, and the mainland of Zetland,undertaken for the Earl of Zetland and theAnthropological Society of London. Memoirsread before the Anthropological Societyof London 1865-6, Vol. 2. London, AnthropologicalSociety of London: 294-338.Jakobsen, J. 1897. The dialect and place namesof Shetland: two popular lectures. Lerwick,T. & J. Manson.Jakobsen, J. 1936. The place-names of Shetland.London/Copenhagen.Jónasdóttir, E. 2010. Grýla the Mother andthe Murderer. Analization and discussionof Grýla, trolls and similar creatures in folkand fairy tales. BA-essay, University of Iceland.http://skemman.is/handle/1946/5611(published 14 June 2010, accessed 2 July2011).Jones, M.R.H. 1996. Perceptions of udal law inOrkney and Shetland. In: D.J. Waugh (ed.),Shetland’s northern links – language andhistory. Edinburgh, Scottish society fornorthern studies: 186-204.Low, G. 1879. A tour through the islands ofOrkney and Schetland. Kirkwall, WilliamPeace & Son.Meurkens 2010. The late Medieval/Early Modernreuse of prehistoric barrows as executionsites in the southern part of the Netherlands.Journal of Archaeology in the LowCountries 2/2: 5-29. http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/cgi/t/text/get-pdf?c=jalc;idno=0202a01 (accessed3 July 2011).Mol 2007. Gallows in Late Medieval Frisia. In:R.H. Bremmer, O. Vries and L. van Weezel(edd.) Advances in Oldfrisian Philology,Amsterdamer Beiträge zur ÄlterenGermanistik 64. Amsterdam/New York:263-298. http://www.cs.uu.nl/research/projects/i-cult/xposre/demo/gallows/ (accessed23 April 2012).Nicolaisen, W.F.H. 1983. The post-Norseplace-names of Shetland. In: D.J. Withrington(ed.), Shetland and the outside world1469-1969. Aberdeen University StudiesSeries 157. Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress: 69-85.Ordnance Survey, 2010. Land-Form PANO-RAMA ® User guide and technical speci-ication. Version 5.1, 12/2010. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/docs/user-guides/land-form-panorama-userguide.pdf(accessed 22 June 2011).Peterkin 1822. Notes on Orkney and Zetland1. Edinburgh, Macredie, Skelly & Company.Piech, J. 2010. Galgenstandorte im LandkreisLudwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg. In: J.Auler (ed.), Richtstättenarchäologie 2. Dormagen,Archaeotopos: 314-347.Reynolds, A. 2009. Anglo-Saxon deviant burialcustoms. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Robberstad, K. 1983. Udal law. In: D.J. Withrington(ed.), Shetland and the outsideworld 1469-1969. Aberdeen UniversityStudies Series 157. Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress: 49-68.39

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Gallow hillsAppendix IHistorically recorded death penalties and other references to execution sites in Shetland1574Convict:Gilbert McReichDavid LeslieJames LeslieNormand LeslieRobert RotterTrial: Scalloway, June 1574Committed crime:Sentence:Place of (planned) execution: ?Verdict:Source: Balfour 1859: 11ransacking a ship wreck off the coast of Nestingthe accused were initially sentenced to death, but they were pardonedafter they had been kept standing at the foot of the gallows with the ropearound their neck for two hours and agreed to pay part of the loot to LordRobert.(…) the said Lord (Robert) pardoned them after they were holden twa hoursat the gallows foot and ane tow about their neck and received fra the saidGilbert McReich therefore I of the said ryallis and seven boltis of the saidHolland claith.1602Convict:Christopher JhonsounTrial: Wethersta (Delting), 23 July 1602Committed crime: thieverySentence:hangedPlace of execution: ?Verdict:“to be taine to the gallows hill and thair to be hangeit be the crage quhill hedie, in exempill of utheris.”Source: Donaldson 1954: 18 f. Peterkin 1822: 341615Convict:Christopher EspleinTrial: Scalloway, September 28, 1615Committed crime: thieverySentence:hangedPlace of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict:“efter none to be tane by the lockman to the west hill of Scalloway callit thegallow hill abone Houll, and thair to be hangit be the craig to the daith.”Source: Barclay 1967: 116. Donaldson 1991: 211615Convicts:Bothuel ‘Buttie’ ErasmussoneIver ManssoneTrial: Scalloway, October 3, 1615Committed crime: thievery (?)Sentence:hanged41

TAP Field Report No. 5Place of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict:“to be hangit upone the geibitt to the death”.Source: Barclay 1967: 1171616Convicts:Katherine JonesdochterJonka DyneisBarbaray ScordRobert BoundsoneTrial: Scalloway, October 3, 1616Committed crime: witchcraft, contact with the devil, thieverySentence:strangled and burnt (females), hanged (male)Place of execution:Verdict:Source: Donaldson 1991: 43Scalloway, Gallow Hill(Katherine Jonesdochter, Jonka Dyneis, Barbaray Scord) “to be tane by thelockmane to the place of execution abone Berrie useit and wount efter noneand thair to be wirryet at ane staik quhill they be dead and thairefter to bebrunt in ashes…”(Robert Boundsone) “to be taken to the same place and hangit to the deathupoun the geibitt for certane poyntis of thift and commone bruit thereof”.1618Convict:William SutherlandTrial: Scalloway, August 20, 1618Committed crime: murderSentence:beheaded by the MaidenPlace of execution: outside Scalloway castleVerdict:to be taken by the lockman “to the west end of the gairdin and thair hishead to be dung fra his shoulders be the maiden.”Source: Donaldson 1991: 711618Convict:John ThomsonTrial: Scalloway, August 25, 1618Committed crime: bestialitySentence:strangled and burntPlace of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict:“to be taken by the lockman to the Gallow Hill and there with his mear to bewirried at ane staik to the daith and brunt in ashes.”Source: Donaldson 1991: 72 f.1625Convicts:Robert IngsetterMarioun ThomasdochterTrial: Scalloway, October 14, 1625Committed crime: thieverySentence:hanged (male), thrown down the cliffs (female)Place of execution: Scalloway, Gallow Hill (gallows)42

Gallow hills‘Luckymenis Ness’ (cliffs)Verdict:(Robert Ingsetter) to be taken by the lockman, with his hands boundbehind his back, to the hill above Berrie, “quhilk is the place of execution”,and there to be hanged…(Marioun Thomasdochter) “to be taken by the lockman and hir handbound behind hir back to the point of Luckymenis Ness and thair cassingover the craig in the sea and drowned to the death.”Source: Donaldson 1991: 1241628Convict:Mans ChristopherssonTrial: Scalloway, November 5, 1628Committed crime: thieverySentence:hangedPlace of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict:“to be taken by the lockman, his hands bund behind his back, to the GallowHill, the place of execution, and there hanged.”Source: Donaldson 1991: 1461628Convict:William CogillTrial: Scalloway, November 26, 1628Committed crime: thieverySentence:hangedPlace of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict:“to be taken by the lockman, his hands tied behind his back, to the Gallow Hill,the place of execution, and there be hanged.”Source: Donaldson 1991: 1541644Convict:Marion Peebles alias PardoneMargaret GuthramdaughterTrial: Scalloway, 21 March 1644Committed crime: witchcraftSentence:strangled and burntPlace of execution:Verdict:Scalloway, Gallow Hill (Hill of Berrie)“to be taken brought hence to the place of execution to the Hill of Berrie andthere wyryt at ane stak and brunt in ashes betwix and 2 aftirnoone”Source: Hibbert 1822: 575 and 593-602c.1675Convicts:Helen Stewarther motherTrial: ?Committed crime: witchcraftSentence:strangled and burntPlace of execution: ShetlandVerdict: ?43

TAP Field Report No. 5Source: Sinclair 1685: 231Note:Sinclair gives the following account: “In Shetland a few years ago, a judgehaving condemned an old woman and her daughter called Helen Stewartfor witch-craft, sent them to be burn’d. The maid was so stupid, that she wasthought to be possessed. When she had hung some little time on the gibbet, ablack pitchy-like ball foamed out of her mouth: and after the ire was kindled,it grew to the bigness of a walnut, and then lew up like squibs into the air,which the judge yet living attests. It was taken to be a visible sign that thedevil was gone out of her’.c.1675Convict:‘Luggie’ (nickname)Trial: ?Committed crime: witchcraftSentence:burned at the stakePlace of execution: ScallowayVerdict: ?Source: Sinclair 1685: 237 f. Brand 1701: 167Note:It is not clear whether the accounts given by Sinclair and Brand arebased on a historical case or rather represent a legend. Sinclair gives thefollowing account: (...) a wizzard accused and execute in Shetland, beforenamed, for witchcraft several years ago, called Luggie, to a nick-name, whobeing a isher, had a trick at any time, when hungry at sea, to cast out his line,and would out of Neptuns lowest kitching, bring cliverly up ish well boiledand roasted. And his comerades by a natural courage, would make a merrymeal thereof, not questioning who was cook. He had another piece of art,at any time in the year, or in great storms, to go up to an high hill near hisown house, whereupon there was a deep pit, out of which, with his lines hedrew up codlings, or keeling for his provision, which never man could do buthimself. This story is true, being yet to be seen in the criminal books of thatcountrey.”According to Brand, this Luggie used to live at Kebister, ‘about a mile fromTingwall to the North’, where there still is a hill called Luggies Knowe (infact this is 3 miles northeast of Tingwall).1685Convict:John JohnsonTrial: ?Committed crime: thieverySentence:the accused was dragged from Scalloway castle to the execution site onGallow Hill with his hands bound behind his back, and whipped by thehangman. After that, he was nailed with his ears to the gallows whilestanding on a stone, and then thrown down. The convict was then returnedto prison and inally banished forever from Shetland.Place of execution: ScallowayVerdict:taken to the comone hangman as a bund thief, with his hands behind his back,and scurged from the castell [to] the gallows, and... receave threscoir of strypsor lasches from the hand of the said comone hangman, and therafter his lugs44

Gallow hillsto be naild to the gallous, a stone being under his feitt to make it a step height,and... after he is nailld therto he may fall therfrom, the stone being takneaway from under his feitt.Source: Smith 2006c.1690Convict:Barbara TullochEllen KingTrial: ?Committed crime: witchcraftSentence:burned at the stakePlace of execution: Scalloway, Gallow HillVerdict: ?Source: Turnbull 1845: 60. Smith 2006.Note: Tulloch is referred to in the Tingwall kirk session as ‘a brunt witch’ in 1693 (Smith 2006).She may have been the last person sentenced to death in Shetland.45

TAP Field Report No. 5Appendix IIPanoramic photo mosaicsFigure 49 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Huesbreck, Dunrossness.Figure 50 Panorama from Golgo, Sandwick, Dunrossness.Figure 51 Panorama from the Knowe of Wilga, Cunningsburgh.Figure 52 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Scalloway.Figure 53 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Tingwall.46

Gallow hills47

TAP Field Report No. 5Figure 54 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Brae.Figure 55 Panorama from Hill of Halsagarth, Mid-Yell.Figure 56 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Fetlar.Figure 57 Panorama from Gallow Hill, Unst.48

Gallow hills49

TAP Field Report No. 5 A survey of Shetland's gallow hills Joris ...

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