Thing Sites: Dingwall Hillyard Traditional Geocache
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Lorgadh
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Thing Sites: Dingwall Hillyard
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This cache is part of the official Thing Sites GeoTour. This is a magnetic nanocache. Please bring your own pencil to complete the logbook.
Thing sites, from the Old Norse Þing, are the early assemblies found throughout Northern Europe as a result of our shared Norse heritage.
When the Vikings and early Norse settlers arrived in a new place they brought with them their customs and legal systems. Political decisions were made at the thing, laws upheld and disputes settled. Proceedings were overseen by the local ruler and the law-speaker (judge), whose job was to memorise and recite the law. At some things, known as Althings, any free man was entitled to vote. At others - Lawthings - the crown and local communities acted together to interpret the law.
The thing was also a focus for religious activity, as well as trade and exchange. At Thingvellir in Iceland you can still see the remains of the booths, or huts, where traders came to do business with people attending the meeting.
The thing system for sharing and legislating power can still be recognised today. Several things continue to be active. The Icelandic parliament is still known as the Althing, the Norwegian parliament is called the Storting and the Faroese parliament goes by the name of Løgting. The Manx parliament, known as Tynwald, still holds a midsummer court on the thing mound at Tynwald Hill every year.
The Thing Sites GeoTour has placed caches in and around the locations of Norse and Viking assembly sites in Norway, Iceland, The Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland, Highland Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Follow in the footsteps of the Vikings, and explore some of these fascinating sites.
1000 years ago and more Vikings occupied Ross, of which Dingwall is the county town. Their Thing Site gave Dingwall its name, derived from þing-völlr, Old Norse for parliament field.
The Thing Mound is in the centre of the town of Dingwall, by the old parish church. Today it serves as a car park.
The Thing Site complex at Dingwall consisted of the hill within its hillyard, the church within its churchyard and an open grassy field to the west.
The Hill and Hillyard
The thingmen met as a fenced court on the mound. An archaeological radar ground penetration survey in 2011 revealed an anomaly which is likely to be a ditch. It lies immediately inside the boundary of the car park following the curve of line of the metal barriers. After the time of the Vikings the mound became the Moothill of Dingwall, the Hill of Dingwall. George, first Earl of Cromartie in his old age erected a tall obelisk on the top of the mound and when he died in 1714 he was buried at its base. The present replacement monument was erected in 1923. Read the plaque on its south side.
The Church and Churchyard
Beside the Hillyard is the church of the old parish of Dingwall, now Dingwall St Clement’s Parish Church. The present building dates from 1801 and replaced a pre-Reformation building on a site to its north within the churchyard. There has been a church on this site for over a thousand years.
The Trinity Field
The level field to the west is today partly occupied by Tesco’s Fuel Station. In medieval times it had belonged to the Chaplainry of Trinity. On that field spectators would have gathered to observe and listen to the court proceedings on the Hill of Dingwall.
Visit the market town of Dingwall. The town was chartered as a Royal Burgh in 1226.
Dingwall is easily reached by public transport. There are frequent train and bus services from Inverness.
If you arrive by car, you will find several free car parks in the centre of town.
Please note, this cache is located in a town centre carpark. Pedestrians within the car park must take utmost care at all times. Vehicles are constantly moving within the parking area.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ab arrq gb tb hc gur fgrcf be guebhtu gur tngr