'Old Man of Wick' may be younger than believed. Will history now have to be rewritten after castle timber dating?
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
With this week's announcement that an ancient timber recovered from the Castle of old Wick has been dated by scientists, the historic timeline of the castle may have to be reassessed.
The grim edifice, known locally as the Old Man of Wick, sits on a promontory about a mile from Wick and a Historic Scotland information panel sits beside it with some illuminating details.
"Old Wick is one of the oldest castles in Scotland. It was probably built by the Earl of Caithness, Harald Maddadson, in the 1160s," it exclaims in the top line.
However, this historic timeline does not fit so well with data from Historic Environment Scotland and Castle Studies Trust which undertook scientific analysis on a piece of alder wood recovered from a wall socket in the castle last year.
Dr Will Wyeth, a freelance specialist in Scottish castles, has been looking at data from Dr Coralie Mills’ and Hamish Darrah on the fragment – their research appears to challenge a 12th century date for the castle. "Their analysis of the fragment of alder has given the first substantive dating evidence for the castle with a felling date range of 1515-50 (95% probability)," he said.
However, he adds: "The identification of the species of timber (alder) and the date at which the tree from which the timber came was felled, tells us that the castle's tower was renovated or repaired in the early 16th century."
Dr Mills says she agrees with this dating and adds that the timber was probably part of a "secondary feature" in the structure called a "hanging lum" that was built after the castle was damaged in the early 1500s.
"This is not dating the original construction of the tower," she says. "It has been a great privilege to be involved in recovering the timber and in obtaining the first scientific dating evidence for the Castle of Old Wick. The sole surviving timber proved to be alder and so could not be tree-ring dated but a high precision radiocarbon date has allowed new insights into the dramatic history of the castle."
Dr Wyeth says that the new information does not tell us when the stone tower was built, but it does increase his confidence that the "building probably does not date to the 1100s".
"My gut feeling is that the stone tower dates to the 15th century. While scientific data doesn't tell us when the tower was built (only when it was repaired), it's unlikely that the tower will be more than 1-2 centuries older. In effect, the tower was probably built at the earliest in the late 14th century, more likely in the 15th."
There is evidence of a violent dispute that occurred in the 1490s when the castle was owned by Christian Sutherland, the Lady of Berriedale. This led to looting and partial destruction of the structure which could explain the renovation work that included the hanging lum where the timber fragment is believed to come from.
Dr Wyeth says that the tower is not as old as the rock-cut ditch across the headland so the history of the castle is quite complicated. "This means that it's likely the promontory has been occupied before the construction of the tower. We don't know how much earlier this might be – a couple of decades, a century, a millennium? For my two cents, I think the ditch is probably medieval, but we can't be sure."
Claims for the early date for the castle rested on the mention of a place called "Vik" (Wick) in the Orkneyinga Saga of the 12th century. Dr Wyeth, however, thinks Vik refers to a farm settlement located in or near the modern burgh and not the castle. There were also comparisons made with Cubbie Roo's Castle in Orkney, parts of which date to the 12th century. "Folk previously said the plan of the tower at Castle of Old Wick was similar, but that's wrong. Early maps and images of the tower show there was a small projecting extension, so it doesn't actually resemble Cubbie Roo's early building."
Dr Wyeth says all the evidence he has evaluated points to the earliest date for construction of the Castle of old Wick to be in the 14th century.
On a final note, Dr Wyeth is looking for information from local people about their memories of visiting the castle for picnics and were there any ghost stories connected to the place that they'd like to share?
He also asked: "Can anyone shed light on when the burn of Scales Burn was culverted? Are there any folk who remember the area before the houses were built there? It was located roughly on the line of Bay View in Wick, between Willowbank and The Shore. The modern street of Scalesburn is slightly east of where I think Scales Burn was situated."
If you can help, please email Dr Wyeth at: will(dot)wyeth(at)gmail(dot)com
