Fedeland

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View from the northeast
View from the south

Fedeland is a former village in the north of Mainland , the main island of the Shetlands, part of Scotland and was inhabited by fishermen in the summer in the 18th and 19th centuries .

geography

Fedeland is located on a low isthmus, around 100 meters wide, which separates Fethaland in the south from the Isle of Fethaland peninsula in the north. Since its northern tip, Point of Fethaland , also marks the border of two seas in accordance with the International Hydrographic Organization , the bay east of the isthmus opens up to the North Sea , the western one to the North Atlantic . Fedeland lies apart from the other settlements: it is four kilometers to the next hamlet, Isbister , and five kilometers to the next larger town, North Roe . Fedeland is in the Community Council Area of Northmavine .

history

As a location for fishing going back to the 15th and 16th centuries, Fedeland developed in the course of the 18th century into one of around half a dozen larger settlements, each used from late May / early June to August At the end of the 19th century Haaf Fishing was operated. In this specific to the Shetlands type of deep-sea fishing members were of Crofterfamilien obliged for their landlords ( Laird ) with Sixareens to drive, combined rowing and sailing boats, up to 60 kilometers at sea, to meet with longlines mainly Leng , but also cod and Catch tusk . The fish landed were gutted, salted and dried on the gravel beaches. Until the landowner built his own facility at Roer Mill Bay, the fish from the fishing station to the west of Uyea were also treated in Fedeland , as there was no suitable beach there. At the end of the season, the fish were picked up by ships also operated by the Lairds and sold elsewhere; the around 600 fishermen in the peak phase returned to their hometowns by next spring. With the decline of haaf fishing at the end of the 19th century, triggered among other things by severe weather disasters with numerous losses such as the Gloup Disaster in 1881, the strengthening of the rights of crofters through the Crofters' Holdings Act 1886 and the increasing use of steam-powered trawlers , these fishing settlements lost theirs Purpose. The archaeologist John Abercromby , who carried out an excavation in 1904 in the area of ​​the settlement, which had already been abandoned at the time , reported that in the mid-1850s several hundred people and 60 boats were still in use, thirty years later there were only 40 boats.

Todays situation

Floor plan of the prehistoric building, created in 1904 by John Abercrombie

The outer walls of almost 20 buildings from Fedeland and the remains of a dozen other structures still exist. Most of these comprise a single room and are single-story, with the exception of the one where the local laird representative lived. The walls are made of dry masonry , and mortar has been used in isolated cases . The roofs were removed at the end of the season and are therefore no longer there. The area of ​​the settlement has been designated as a Scheduled Monument since 1994 with an extension of about 300 by 250 meters . It extends on both sides to the high water marks of both bays and in the northwest to the remains of a wall also built using drywall.

Inside the reserve are also the remains of an oval prehistoric building with an outer diameter of 12 meters. A 7.5 meter long entrance flanked by an orthostat that protrudes from the ground up to a height of two meters leads to an interior area that has a diameter of 5.5 meters. The stone setting suggests a separation of individual chambers. Initially classified as a Broch , investigations showed that it is not such a tower, but rather a residential building. A statement about the time of origin has not yet been made due to the poor find situation, there are similarities to the Iron Age round house on the Calf of Eday .

literature

  • Magnus Dixon: Haaf fishing in Shetland. Article on the NorthLink Ferries website. (English)
  • The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (Hg): Twelfth report with an inventory of the ancient monuments of Orkney and Shetland, No. 1355: Broch (probable), Fethaland. Vol III, pp. 91–92 , Edinburgh 1946. (English)
  • John Abercromby : Report on excavations at Fethaland and Trowie Knowie, Shetland; and of the exploration of a cairn on Dumglow, one of the Cleish Hill, Kinross-shire. Proceedings of The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 39, 1904-05, pp. 141-145. Digitized version , PDF file, 740 kB. (English)
  • Samuel Hibbert : A Description of the Shetland Islands: Comprising an Account of Their Scenery, Antiquities and Superstitions. Edinburgh 1822, abridged reprint from 1891. Contemporary description of haaf fishing in general and the situation in Feideland in particular on pages 220–224 (English)

Web links

Commons : Fedeland  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition , Monte-Carlo 1953, point 4 and point 23. Available online on the website of the International Hydrographic Organization, PDF file, 970 kB, accessed on July 4, 2018 (English)
  2. ↑ Fethaland on a Shetland Fisheries website, accessed July 29, 2018
  3. ↑ Hibbert, p. 225
  4. ↑ William Jack: Parish of Northmaven. Old Statistical Account, Vol. XII, Edinburgh 1794, p. 351.Digitized from the University of Edinburgh website, accessed on July 29, 2018 (English)

Coordinates: 60 ° 37 ′ 48 ″  N , 1 ° 18 ′ 58 ″  W.