Foula Archaeology

The results of the survey (exemplified by Neolithic settlement and funerary evidence) challenge the assumption that Foula's initial occupation significantly post-dates that of Shetland by over 2000 years (see Ritchie 1997). That Foula is visible from not only the rest of Shetland but also from Westray aids in the rejection of this assumption, for it seems highly unlikely that a clearly visible location should remain untouched for so long. On the contrary, Foula's landscape reveals a rich human presence extending back as far as 5000 years into the past, often taking the form of concentrated areas of fixed occupation, where people have lived intermittently over thousands of years.

Occupation of the wider landscape works on a broader scale, where the seasonal movement of people and animals has left its imprint on many 'out of the way' places. These pathways along the coastline or from lower to upper ground have gradually altered or faded in accordance with social, climatic, or economic change and with fluctuations in population. Conversely, some traditions of landscape use have been maintained over longer periods; strategies for living and working in an often unforgiving environment, which have persisted through the tried and tested successes of generations. This delicate balance between continuity and change is manifest particularly where modern settlement continues to be successful, creating the rich palimpsest of landscape use visible today.

Certain points in Foula's landscape have been marked and set-aside as special places for the internment of the dead. These funerary monuments, in most cases, are placed in lofty locations overlooking areas of settlement. The tendency for such structures to dominate the skyline is a common theme in other areas (see, for example, Frazer 1984) and on Foula the importance of location is also exemplified by the visibility between monuments. The cairns on the Sneug, and at South Ness, Crougar, Harrier and Soberlie crest are all connected by their mutual inter-visibility, serving to draw attention to not only themselves, but to each-other. By the fact of their placement on prominent hill-top locations, these monuments will have been incorporated into people's understanding of the landscape throughout all periods succeeding their construction, and therefore retain an important role in the development of the landscape over time. It may be significant that the Lamus O Da Wilse, one of the largest and most impressively situated monuments, is also visible from these locations but with the notable exception of the Sneug cairns; a theme which could be developed in future research.

The archaeological remains encountered by the survey show elements of both similarity and difference from those on the mainland of Shetland. The architectural styles to Foula's prehistoric remains are in some cases paralleled throughout Shetland (for example with the morphology of house 37 on the South Ness). In other cases it appears that adopted mainland traditions have developed their own unique styles over time (for example with cairn 724 on the summit of the Sneug). More recent archaeological remains from the historic period also display some similarities to both building practice and to the character of land division on the mainland. Foula's physical remains therefore express many connections to mainland Shetland, whilst simultaneously highlighting the unique character of developing traditions on the island.

The re-use and elaboration of older structures is a common theme on Foula, and serves to complicate the histories encoded within the landscape. In particular this re-use prevents an a priori classification for the function of many features (especially dykes) which are likely to have seen multiple uses since their construction. For an island with such strong Norse traditions, it seems unusual that a Norse presence is not more apparent. However, it is difficult to flesh out this presence from the later structures which, in so many cases, are likely to be developments upon Norse (or earlier) remains. This tendency for re-use attests to the skilled exploitation of both available resources and ideal locations. Despite the difficulties of working a landscape in need of heavy maintenance, Foula's historical remains contradict the easy assumption that life on a remote island necessarily involves constant hardship, offering instead a picture of a knowledgeable and viable community, whose success derives from an independent and competent manipulation of the environment.

Geographical or environmental marginality is not necessarily accompanied by social or political remoteness (Coles and Mills 1996), and the evidence above indicates that Foula's position within the well travelled sea-routes of the North Atlantic seaboard has aided rather than inhibited the success of earlier communities. The sheer quantity of archaeological remains encountered by the survey is remarkable for an island of this size, and highlights the fact that Foula's position as marginal to our understanding of Shetland's history is entirely constructed, based in pre-conceptions rather than reality. Social, economic, and political change has increased in pace over the last 100 years or so, which in turn has engendered a new way of perceiving remote island communities as somehow 'left behind'. However, the perception of backwardness has more to do with the position and motives of the observers than with the fitness of an economy or society to provide the material means of survival' (Coles and Mills 1996: 9). To extrapolate modern political and cultural relationships onto past societies obscures the realities of people's lives for these periods. A wider concept of marginality as applied to Foula is an irrelevant concept when we consider the broad spatial and temporal scale within which this works, as it holds little efficacy for people's day to day lives on the island.

When considered on this large-scale, increasing climatic deterioration on Foula since the Neolithic, and the increasing centralisation of political and economic centres, paints a somewhat bleak picture of life in the 'harsh and unforgiving north'. Whilst to an extent this may be true, these vast spans of time do not operate within the individual experiences of a single lifetime or generation. Those people living on Foula throughout these periods may have regarded their situation from a more 'island-centred' perspective, where changes in the outside world were considered far less important or imposing than those living outside might expect. It may have been the case in the past, as it is today, that Foula is the centre of the world for those who live and work on the island, which creates an entirely reversed notion of the meaning of marginality for those living outside.

Helen Bradley 2004

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