Sandwick | As described in F.H. Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4)

Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Sandwick

Sandwick, an Orkney parish on the W coast of Pomona, whose church stands 100 yards from the NE shore of the Bay of Skaill, and 5 miles N by W of Stromness, under which there is a post office. It is bounded N and N E by Birsay, E by Harray and the Loch of Harray, SE by Stenness and the Loch of Stenness, S by Stromness, and W by the Atlantic Ocean. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 5½ miles; its utmost width is 4¾ miles; and its land area is 18 ½ square miles or 11, 827 acres. The coast, 7¼ miles in extent, is everywhere precipitous, except at the Bay of Skaill, which measures 6 furlongs across the entrance and 4½ thence to its inmost recess, and S of which the Ward Hill rises steeply to a height of 1 94 feet above sea-level. The western district is somewhat hilly, in the S attaining 342 feet at Crua Breck, 252 at Gyran, and 206 at Linga Field, in the N 305 at Vestra Field; whilst the eastern district slopes gently towards the Lochs of Harray and Stenness. The Loch of Skaill (7 x 4 furl.) is the largest of seven small fresh-water lakes scattered over the interior. The rocks include granite, flagstone, sandstone, and trap; bog-iron, clay, and marl are plentiful; and moss yields abundance of peat-fuel. To abridge from a recent article by Mr Pringle, ` The parish of Sandwick presents a more fertile aspect than that of Stromness, and a more advanced state of agricultural industry. The manse has a singularly cosy look for an Orkney dwelling owing to the thriving plantation which is growing in front of it. There are about 70 heritors, and the valuation of many of these lairds does not exceed £15 to £20 per annum, whilst some are valued as low as £5 per annum. They are the relics of the old Norse udallers, a class of freeholders once very common in Orkney, but now existing only in some parts of the West Mainland. Hitherto this class has not done much in improving their lands, and their houses and habits are those of the lowest rank of peasantry. If they make a shilling they put it past, and no inducement is sufficient to cause them to part with it. The improved appearance of the parish is owing chiefly to the operations carried by the late W. W. G. Watt, Esq. of Breckness, who owned fully two-thirds of the parish. Mr Watt's father for many years farmed a large portion of his property, and had effected great improvements on it fifty years ago, and the work so begun was carried out on a still more extensive scale by his son. The farms of Skaill and Kierfiold are as highly improved and well cultivated as if they had been situated in East Lothian, instead of on the N side of the Pentland Firth. These farms are contiguous, but are worked separately. A considerable part of Skaill has been long under cultivation, whereas but little more than thirty years ago Kierfiold was a rabbit warren and commonty, from which state it was reclaimed by the late proprietor. The soil of both farms varies from pure sand to a stiff clay loam, and their extent altogether is upwards of 700 acres.` Near the coast are remains of a large building, the ` Castle of Snusgar; ` and other antiquities are standing-stones, vitrified cairns, a cromlech, Scandinavian brochs, a great number of sepulchral barrows, and ruins of a small old church. A large collection of ornaments, ingots, coins, etc. (more than 16 lbs. in weight), was found in 1858 in a sandhill near the N side of the Bay of Skaill, and is now in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. This deposit, which was probably the concealed hoard of some of the Scandinavian Vikings of the 10th century, consists of five large penannular ring brooches, having bulbous extremities shaped like thistle-heads, and ornamented with dragonesque tracery on one side and prickly-like ornament on the other; four penannular ring brooches, with flattened extremities and thistleheaded acus; thirteen wreathed neck-rings of silver wires, spirally twisted together, and with recurved ends or hook and eyelet fastenings; an arm-ring, 3¾ inches inner diameter, of spirally twisted plaits of silver wire, welded into solid ends, which terminate in dragonesque heads; a flat arm-band of thin metal; an armlet or anklet, penannular in form and triangular in section; twenty-five plain rings of the same form; a quantity of ingots of silver; a quantity of fragments of brooches, rings, etc., which have been purposely chopped into small pieces; seven Cufic coins of the Samanian, and two of the Abbasside Caliphs, dating from A.D.887 to 945; a coin of Æthelstan, 925, struck at Leicester; and a Peter's Penny, struck at York. The Rev. Charles Clonston, LL.D., eminent as a meteorologist, naturalist, and antiquary, was minister from 1833 till his death in 1884. Sandwick is in the presbytery of Cairston and the synod of Orkney; the living is worth £181. The parish church, built in 1836, contains 564 sittings. There are a U.P. church of Sandwick (1828) and a Free church of Harray and Sandwick; and the North and South public schools, both of recent erection, with respective accommodation for 75 and 60 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 54 and 51, and grants of £46, 12s. and £36, 16s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £2070, (1884) £3660, 11s. 1d. Pop. (1801) 970, (1831) 973, (1861) 1225, (1871) 1153, (1881) 1198.

Linked entities:
Feature Description:	"an Orkney parish" (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units:	Sandwick ScoP Orkney ScoCnty
Place:	Sandwick

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