Links of Noltland is a settlement with late Stone Age and early Bronze Age, roughly 2500–800 BC, when metalworking spread, dwellings, protected by law for its archaeological importance.
A face came out of the sand at Noltland in 2009 — a small carved figurine, since called the Westray Wife, and the earliest representation of a human face yet found in Scotland. It is now better known than the settlement it came from.
That settlement is large and it spans a boundary. Dwellings here run from the late Neolithic into the early Bronze Age, on the north coast of Westray south of the Bay of Grobust, which makes the site useful for exactly the period at which one way of living gave way to another.
Sand is both the reason it survived and the reason it is going. The dunes buried the buildings and kept them, as at Skara Brae, and the dunes are now eroding off them. The site was scheduled in 1993.
Along this same short stretch of coast stand the Knowe of Queen o’ Howe, a broch, and further south Noltland Castle — three periods of building, thousands of years apart, within walking distance.
What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.
History
The settlement stands south of the Bay of Grobust on the north coast of Westray, and it is extensive — a spread of dwellings running from the late Neolithic into the early Bronze Age, so the sequence covers the transition between the two rather than sitting on one side of it. In 2009 excavation recovered a small carved figurine that has become known as the Westray Wife. It is the earliest representation of a human face found anywhere in Scotland, and it has made the object more famous than the settlement that produced it.
Historic Environment Scotland scheduled the site in 1993. It is threatened by erosion of the sand dunes it sits in — the same sand that buried and preserved the buildings is now moving off them. The Knowe of Queen o' Howe broch stands close by, and Noltland Castle lies further south, so this short stretch of Westray coast carries prehistoric settlement, an Iron Age drystone tower and a later fortified house within walking distance of one another — three separate answers, thousands of years apart, to the question of where on this island it made sense to build.
Cultural influences
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The dwellings span the transition from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age on Westray’s north coast.
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The sand dunes that buried and preserved the buildings are now eroding away from them.
Connections
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Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Quoygrew and Links of Noltland are complementary Westray settlement sites: Quoygrew preserves a later Norse farm, while Noltland documents farming communities from the Neolithic into the Bronze Age on the same island.
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Photo: Otter / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Links of Noltland and Noltland Castle occupy the Grobust Bay/Pierowall coast in successive periods. The prehistoric settlement gives the long archaeological setting for the unfinished sixteenth-century fortress built nearby for Gilbert Balfour.
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Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Knap of Howar and Links of Noltland are two of Orkney’s best-preserved early farming settlements. Knap’s two houses are earlier, while Noltland’s long sequence shows settlement continuing on Westray through the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Discovery & excavation
Excavation in 2009 recovered the carved Westray Wife figurine, the earliest known representation of a human face in Scotland.
In culture
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The 2009 discovery of the small carved figurine known as the Westray Wife has become a distinctive cultural emblem of Westray and prehistoric Orkney; further figurines found in 2010 and 2012 made the group unprecedented.
What to look for
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Settlement spread
The site contains a broad spread of dwellings south of the Bay of Grobust.
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Eroding dunes
Moving sand exposes and threatens the buried buildings.
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Coastal sequence
The nearby broch and Noltland Castle show later building on the same short stretch of coast.
Plan your visit
- Location
- 59.3261°N · 3.0058°W
- Access
- Open access
- Terrain
- Moderate walking
- Time needed
- About 45 minutes
- Best time
- Daylight hours
- What survives
- Buried settlement remains are exposed and threatened as the protective dunes erode.
- Facilities
- Facilities are limited at the archaeological site; check local visitor guidance before travelling.
Opening & admission
No reliable current admission details are recorded; verify before travelling.
- The excavation is open seasonally free of charge, and several artefacts can be seen at Westray Heritage Centre.
Nearby places
Building or ruin · Medieval
Noltland Castle
Orkney Islands
A castle of the later sixteenth century near Pierowall on Westray, never fully completed.
- Near Pierowall
Ancient place · Prehistoric
Quoygrew settlement, Westray
Orkney Islands
A medieval Norse settlement on Westray, begun as a small farmstead between about 900 and 1000.
- Near Westray
- Easy path
Settlement · Prehistoric
Knap of Howar
Orkney Islands
A farmstead of the first farming age on Papa Westray that may be the oldest standing house in northern Europe.
- Easy path
Tomb or burial place · Prehistoric
Holm of Papa Westray Chambered Cairn
Orkney Islands
A chambered cairn twenty metres long: a burial tomb of stone-built compartments under a mound: on an uninhabited islet of twenty-one hectares off P…
- Easy path
Questions people ask
- What is the settlement?
- An extensive spread of dwellings south of the Bay of Grobust on the north coast of Westray, running from the late Neolithic into the early Bronze Age — so the sequence covers the transition between the two rather than sitting on one side of it.
- What is the Westray Wife?
- A small carved figurine recovered in excavation in 2009. It is the earliest representation of a human face found anywhere in Scotland, and it has made the object more famous than the settlement that produced it.
- What threatens the site?
- Erosion of the sand dunes it sits in — the same sand that buried and preserved the buildings is now moving off them. Historic Environment Scotland scheduled the site in 1993.
Sources
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