Rendall (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ''Rennudalr''Pedersen, Roy (January 1992) ''Orkneyjar ok Katanes'' (map, Inverness, Nevis Print) or ''Rennadal'') is a parish on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It is in the north west of the island and lies east of the parishes of

Birsay Birsay () (Old Norse: ''Birgisherað'') is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle. There are various ancient ...

and Evie and north east of Harray. The island of Gairsay is also in the parish.

Important Sites and Attractions

The Rendall

Doocot A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

is a 17th-century beehive doocot located at the Hall of Rendall and is unique in the Northern Isles, as most doocots are square/rectangle buildings. The Hall of Rendall is a settlement mound containing prehistoric structures, possibly a broch but that is doubted, and the remains of a medieval church. Human remains are regularly recovered from the beach and eroding sections near the church. The Tingwall Ferry Terminal is located in Rendall and operates ferries to Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre. Next to it is a broch and a

Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuse ...

, both

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

s. Tingwall is from the Old Norse place-name 'Thing-völlr', meaning 'thing-field' and the first mention of it occurs in the 12th-century Orkneyinga Saga. Seven Knowes, a scheduled monument, is also located in Rendall. The monument comprises the remains of seven barrows dating from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. The monument was first scheduled in 1936.

Archaeology

In 2003, a farmer undertook work to flatten a small knoll they thought was a stone dump but shortly after the works started it became apparent that the knoll was instead a burial mound. GUARD Archaeology was called in to excavate the site as part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call Off Contract (now

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

). The results of this excavation found two

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...

s containing cremations and a third cist that contained a burial. The burials that could be dated were found have been buried some time between 2020 and 1760 BC. Excavations of three of the barrows at Seven Knowes in 1998 found two had centrally placed cremation

Images

File:Rendall Old Cemetery - geograph.org.uk - 237277.jpg, alt=Rendall Old Cemetery, Rendall Old Cemetery File:Rendall Doocot - geograph.org.uk - 492025.jpg, alt=Rendall Doocot, Rendall Doocot File:Hall of Rendall - geograph.org.uk - 2094323.jpg, alt=A view od the hall of Rendall, Hall of Rendall File:Loch of Brockan, Rendall - geograph.org.uk - 516424.jpg, Lock Brocken

References

Parishes of Orkney Villages on Mainland, Orkney {{Orkney-geo-stub