South Ronaldsay’s Cairns Quaich
Back in summer 2018, the Quaichshop Blog came from the wonderful Orkney Isles, where we were visiting our good friend Carrie Paxton, whose glass studio (Ingaskeldt) is on the outskirts of Kirkwall. We reported on a visit to the old farm at Corrigall, which dates from the 16th-18th Centuries, and is now preserved as a museum. In the main farmhouse we came across a wonderful example of an Orkney Cog – a cog is a circular drinking vessel made from wooden staves, bound by wood or metal hoops.
The term Bride’s Cog refers to the drink contained within the vessel, a potent mixture of hot ale, spirits, sugar and spices, which is brought out at the end of wedding celebrations. The blog noted that this ceremonial act has obvious parallels with the practice, now definitely on the increase, of using larger quaichs at weddings. For good measure, an ancient recipe for the Bride’s Cog was included!
Little did we know that, just around the time of our visit, archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) were unearthing a two thousand year old wooden bowl from an underground chamber beneath The Cairns Broch, on South Ronaldsay in Orkney! The excavation team has nicknamed their superb find the ‘Cairns Quaich’ or the ‘Cairns Cog’. In the fullness of time, the discovery of this incredibly well-preserved vessel will throw new light on life in an Iron Age broch in the North of Scotland.
This unique object is a wood turned bowl, made from alder, which is approximately 30cm in diameter, has an everted (splayed outwards) rim. The object has split at some point in its long history, but it is complete. The bowl was being held together by the glue-like consistency of the of the excavation’s muddy silts. Conditions in the immediate vicinity of the find appear to have ensured that the basal silts within the ‘well’ have been sealed in an anaerobic or anoxic state (without oxygen). This means that microbial agents have not had an opportunity to eat away at the items, therefore providing conditions conducive to the excellent preservation of organic materials.
Images: UHI Archaeology Institute
The bowl’s date has been confirmed from the information provided by aspects of its location within the subterranean chamber which archaeologists have dubbed “The Well”. This underground feature, has a set of stone steps descending into a carefully constructed stone chamber. It was sealed when the broch fell into disuse and was abandoned sometime between the Later 1st and Mid-2nd Century AD, and so it is currently assumed that the bowl dates from this period. Radiocarbon dating will be required to investigate the possibility that it’s origins might be even earlier than this estimated time. In any event, the bowl will be Orkney’s oldest preserved complete wooden vessel.
Site Director, Martin Carruthers, Lecturer in Archaeology at UHI Archaeology Institute, has noted that the bowl looks like the sort of vessel used for serving food or drink. Its round base suggests that it would have been required to be constantly held when full, and perhaps used socially, allowing a libation to be passed around from person to person, hence the parallels drawn to the quaich and the cog.
Much work remains to be done on the site, and it seems likely that there will be other intriguing finds to be made on remains to be recovered from the silts there, as well as elsewhere on the site. Future steps will include the conservation and assessment of the objects recovered from the excavations. It is hoped that the necessary funds can be raised to allow as full as possible an investigation into this unique and fascinating site on South Ronaldsay.
So this forerunner of today’s quaich will in time provide valuable information into Iron Age life, as well as illuminating the present day vessel’s deeply rooted family tree!