medieval-atlas/events-to-about-850/68

Transcription

Scandinavian place-names and settlements Though there are few written sources for the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland prior to about 1200, othertypes of evidence can contribute to the reconstruction of settlement patterns. Settlement may be distinguished as primary, secondary or marginal according to geographical factors. Primary farms in Shetland tend to be coastal with a sheltered harbour reflected in place-names descriptive of the major coastal feature -perhaps a bay, voe (inlet), ness or sound, extensive fertile land for arable and pastoral farming, a high land assessment, calculated in Orkney and Shetland in penny lands and ouncelands for tax purposes (a system probably adopted and adapted for the Western Isles by the earls of Orkney) and merklands for rent; a nearby proprietorial chapel site and very often a broch or fort site, indicating continuity of settlement districts from at least the Iron Age. These settlement districts are represented in Shetland by scattalds, each with the necessary features of a mixed pastoral and maritime economy. The territorial divisions of Norse Scotland (scattalds in Shetland) provide a useful key for understanding the interdependency ofall those features which make up settlement patterns -location, nomenclature, secondary expansion, land use, social organisation and administration. There are about two hundred scattalds in Shetland, twentyfour on the northern island of Unst. Most centre on coastal features favourable for settlement, on bays, firths, nesses and in dales, with arable and meadow land around and a hinterland of pasture making up the essential components of the districts. Within each scattald there can generally be identified a focus of settlement, usually at a prime coastal site, such as Wick, Burrafirth or Sandwick on Unst, around which have developed townships with secondary settlement at some distance along the coast or inland on the hill-grazing land. Primary farms often have simplex topographical names such as Wick (ON vik, bay); Skaw (ON skagi, low ness, cape); Sound (ON sund, sound); or compound topographical names like Sandwick (ON sandr-vik, sand-bay); Burrafrrth (ON borg-fjorttr, fort-firth); and Norwick (ON norttr-vik, north-bay). Settlement expansion from the primary sites could take various forms. The best secondary sites had good arable land and extensive grazing though without all the favourable factors of primary sites -perhaps inland with no immediate access to a beach, like Ungirsta, or coastal but lacking a sheltered natural harbour, like Clivocast. Farms established at some distance from the primary farm are often represented by the stattr element (Shetland, -sta) and occasionally they become the focus of scattalds in their own right, like Baliasta, Ungirsta and Hoversta. Other farms could be established on existing cultivated lands, represented by the generic bolstattr (Shetland, -bister), such as Wadbister (ON vatn, loch), associated with the primary farm of Snarravoe, and Crossbister (ON kross, cross), associated with Underhoull. Like stattr-farms, bolstattr-farms could also become scattald farms in their own right. Both types of farms are represented amongst the most highly assessed on Unst. More marginal farms could be established on or beyond the hill-dyke, the former represented by the element gardrlgerdi (Shetland garth, gert, gord), including Hundigarth (ON hund, dog) and Grisgarth (ON gris, pig); the latter represented by setrlsaetrfarms (Shetland setter, ster), including Murrister (ON myrr, moor) and Collaster (ON kollr, hill-top, Kollr, man's name). Houses esablished in the close vicinity of the primary farm, creating townships, most often took the generics hus (house), skali (hall) (Shetland, skaill), stofa (timber house) (Shetland, stove), and topt (ruin) (Shetland, toft, taft). Another indication of status is land assessment. There were two forms of land valuation in Norse Shetland -tax (scat), assessed in urislands and pennylands; and rent, assessed in merks. In Underhoull scattald, Unst there were four tax-paying farms -Underhoull (51 merks); Vinstrick (16 merks); Baila (9 merks) and Crossbister (18 merks), 94 merks in total. The whole scattald was I 1/6 urislands or 21 penny lands, 4112 merks per pennyland Within many of the scattalds is a broch or fort Which provided the focus of Iron Age settlement. For the Iron Age popula-· tion had similar requirements to the Norse settlers. On Unst there are ten fort-sites. The final indicator of primary sites is a church-site. As churches were proprietorial, they were often established at the primary farm, belonging to the most powerful family in the scattald. On Unst fifteen of the twenty-four scattalds have church-sites.