Gallows Hills

[clanchief]

Brian Smith (Archivist) gave a talk last week about Shetland's Gallow Hills. Amazingly there are 13 such hills and as the medieval population is estimated to be only about 10,000, this is a huge. number of hanging sites.

Brian explained that in Fetlar there is a 25 yard square turf enclosure on the hilltop that he reckons is the remains of an enclosure for the gallows & there is also a stone faced hole that would have held the gallows.

This must be worth a look, has anyone seen this?

[Styles]

They should bring them back.

[Njugle]

Haven't seen the Fetlar one, but been to some of the other places.

 

A very interesting talk and quite thought provoking too. One key point on the statistical front. 10,000 people to thirteen (and possibly more) gallows may seem like a lot, but there is no conclusive evidence that they were in constant use. The mere sight of the well placed gallows, visible for miles, on the prominent sky-lines would have been a powerful deterrent from any unlawful behaviour, whether in use or not. One hanging in a district every fifty years, or more, and the fearful image of the gallows present thereafter would impose a mighty message to all but the most determined sheep-thief, or similar.

[Yowe]

Brian explained that in Fetlar there is a 25 yard square turf enclosure on the hilltop that he reckons is the remains of an enclosure for the gallows & there is also a stone faced hole that would have held the gallows.

This must be worth a look, has anyone seen this?

Does anyone know exactly where on Fetlar this is?

[Njugle]

It was on the hill overlooking tresta, from the photo's he was showing. The steep hill above the west end of the beach, so it would be visible from the whole settlement along the shore from the beach. In particular it, like all the gallows, was directly visible from the "muckle hoose" of old.

 

There's was one on the hill across the valley from the Windhoose in Yell too, just to put the heebee-geebees up anybody who is already freaked by the Windhoose.

 

[edit] i am slightly unsure about the Fetlar location though, as in the picture he had of it, it was clearly 'girsey', though i had always beleived yun ness to be all heathery, i'm never been oot it to see for me'sell.

[clanchief]

Brian explained that in Fetlar there is a 25 yard square turf enclosure on the hilltop that he reckons is the remains of an enclosure for the gallows & there is also a stone faced hole that would have held the gallows.

This must be worth a look, has anyone seen this?

Does anyone know exactly where on Fetlar this is?

 

 

Brian mentioned that they walked from the main road to the TV mast and they saw the site straight away

[Yowe]

I can't remember ever noticing anything like that up there but then I wasn't looking for it and I haven't been that way in a long time. Very interesting to know about though. I'll look for it next time I'm in Fetlar.

[Kevin]

Sound interesting, I think the hill directly above the Brig o Waas (on the Waas side) is called Gallows Hill so I presume its one of the 13.

[Pleepsie]

I seem to remember being told that witches were burnt on Galloway Hill in Scalloway. Was that my mother trying to scare me or was it true?

[Njugle]

True. The Gallow hill is above the Westshore in Scalloway. Notably it provides a slight anomaly in what Brian Smith was discussing, in that the area of the hill that Brian identified as being the gallow point is a couple of hundred yards from where the witches were burned, as known to all familiar with the hill, by way of the patch of reddish earth where the burning took place.. I suppose, now that i think about it, they obviously wouldn't have burnt them at the gallows as the fire would have consumed the gallow too.

 

The gallow point is above the top of Houl/Hillside roads

The burning point is in what is now commonly known as the "Mastfield" after the transmitter, about 100yds west of the mast, there is usually a rabbit warren on the mound of reddish earth.

Also of note is the Witches Wart, the highest point on the hill south of the Gallow hill. What the historical fact of it's naming is i do not know, but one folklore version is that this was where the witches went to cast spells upon the fishing boats and their occupants.

 

Fairly gets the imagination going on a dark night up there, try it!

 

 

Its no really spooky, in me teens i used to walk the dug up there all the time in the pitch dark, without hesitation.

[Marjolein]

Yeah I have this book about Shetland stories and I think it has one about Gallow hill at Scalloway and how the last women there that were burnt at the stake were a mother and daughter.

 

I thought I had posted a message here before but I must've done it wrong so I'll say it again...

 

Gallow hill near Bridge of Walls I'm sure did have gallows, I mind hearing about "Teef o da Ne'en" who was hung there. That was that dude who lived near West Burrafirth in a cave in some cliffs and stole sheep... aparrently his cave had a tunnel fae it to somewhere on the hill so he could crawl through that. Aparrently...

[Kevin]

I never knew he wis executed at da brig o waas Gallow hill, I mind getting told he was locked away in the dungeon at the Scallowa castle and died there. I've never seen a written story about that mighty dude "Da Teif o da Nean" so If anybody has any info aboot him I'd love tae hear it.

[Njugle]

I never knew he wis executed at da brig o waas Gallow hill, I mind getting told he was locked away in the dungeon at the Scallowa castle and died there. I've never seen a written story about that mighty dude "Da Teif o da Nean" so If anybody has any info aboot him I'd love tae hear it.

For some reason my "spider senses" tell me the story would make an excellent song.....

[Ghostrider]

Sheep teivery and bidin in the banks musta been a kinda popular profession in it's day, yun fellow soonds a lok laek Blak Eric dat bed ah Fitful. Dunna ken whit Blk Eric's end wis tho, or even if he wis a real boddy, a composite oh many, or a pure myth sae fok hedd somethin t' gluff da bairns t' bed we, and curse for when sheep gud missin t' da Blak Bak, Bonxie ur Aegle.

[north]

Black Eric retired from his life of thievery and mischevious behaviour, partly due to old age and partly due to the unsanitary and unhygenic living conditions in his cave at the back of Fitful (actually Siggar Ness to be pedantic).

 

After he gave up working hellery, he worked for the coonty, leaning on a shovel for over 8 years, before taking a job at Mossy Hill as a MOD policeman. When they shut Mossy Hill down, he took a well earned retirement and is currently living in an assisted living facility in the South Mainland.

 

I think the closest he ever came to being burned at the stake, was one of those wild pallet bonfires at Spiggie! 8O