Funzie Girt (; "Finns' dyke") is an ancient dividing wall that was erected from north to south across the island of Fetlar in Shetland, Scotland. Some sources describe it as having been built in the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

,"Archaeology"
Fetlar Interpretive Centre. Retrieved 15 May 2011 but the date of construction is not certainly known.Schei (2006) p. 52 The line of the wall, which ran for over , once divided the island in two almost equal sections. Also known as the Finnigirt Dyke, it has vanished in places at the southern end, although the ruins are clearly visible along much of the uninhabited north of the island, where it is a conspicuous feature of the landscape."Fetlar, Funziegirt"
Canmore. Retrieved 15 May 2011. The dyke's original purpose is not known, nor is its relationship to other archaeological sites of a similar age nearby. There are various folk tales about its construction, and it is the subject of various pieces of

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

Etymology

The name "Funzie Girt" means "Finns' dyke", the Finns being the legendary pre- Norse inhabitants of the islands who were said to possess magical powers. (The later Iron Age inhabitants of the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles (; ; ) are a chain (or archipelago) of Island, islands of Scotland, located off the north coast of the Scottish mainland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main is ...

were actually

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

, although the historical record is fairly sparse.) The variation between ''Finn'' and ''Funzie'' is due to widespread confusion of the letter ȝ (yogh) with the

cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

form of the letter z. An earlier name for the dyke was simply "Finnigord" and Finnigirt dyke is thus tautologous as ''gord'' already means "dyke".Jakobsen (1897) no. 73 The dyke could have had a role in the naming of Fetlar itself. The division of the island by the dyke was so marked that the Norse seemed to treat Fetlar as two distinct islands—which they called "Est Isle" and "Wast Isle". Haswell-Smith (2004) suggests that the derivation of the name is from ''fetill'', the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

for a "strap" or a "tie", and that Fetlar could therefore mean "two islands tied together" by the dyke. Gammeltoft (2010) however, argues that ''fetlar'' actually means "shoulder-straps", that this description is hardly an obvious one for an island name and Fetlar is thus most probably a Norse adaptation of a precursor language.Gammeltoft (2010) pp. 19-20 This was probably the

Pictish language Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geo ...

although there is no unequivocal evidence for this.

Geography

Originally wide it begins at the north shore by the cliffs of Muckle Funziegord Geo ("big Finns' dyke

gully A gully is a landform A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given ter ...

"), crosses an

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

reserve to the west of Vord Hill, then vanishes near the enclosure of Whilsa Pund. It reappears at the southern shore of Skutes Water, and is particularly well-preserved between Riggin of Setter and Rivs Dale, but its line is then lost again as it skirts the settlement of Houbie. It may have crossed an area known as Vallahamars by the ruins of a later

broch In archaeology, a broch is an British Iron Age, Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Brochs are round ...

reaching the south coast of Fetlar near Stack of Billaclett, although local tradition asserts that it ended at the edge of the cliffs of Clemmels Geos (). The total length would therefore originally have been or more."Get-a-map"
.

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

. Retrieved 15 May 2011. Whilsa Pund is constructed using a similar technique and was probably built at a similar time to Funzie Girt. Its stone-built perimeter is oblong in shape and measures roughly from north to south and transversely. The remains of various structures lie within it and on the west side there is a shallow bay that forms an enclosure approximately in area. There are various other prehistoric ruins near the line of the wall, including the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Hjaltadans stone circle north of Skutes Water, which is only from the dyke, and the three stone circles of Fiddler's Crus to the north-west. There are also two Neolithic heel-shaped cairns, a style of

chambered cairn A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...

unique to Shetland, near the summit of Vord Hill.Schei (2006) p. 10Schei (2006) p. 53 The hamlet of Funzie and the nearby Bay of Funzie and Loch of Funzie are some east of Houbie and appear to have no direct connection with the dyke itself.

Construction

The date of construction is unknown. Haswell-Smith (2004) speculatively implies a

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

provenanceHaswell-Smith (2004) p. 473 and a

date has also been mentioned"Fetlar"
Undiscovered Scotland. Retrieved 15 May 2011. although the Neolithic is quoted by some authoritative sources.Turner (1998) p. 26 However the distinction between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages is not especially marked in Shetland and a date prior to the 1st millennium BC is likely. There are numerous old boundary dykes in Shetland and Funzie Girt is considered to be the best surviving example.Turner (1998) p. 25 It both divides the island west to east and also marks an upland/lower land boundary, with the higher slopes of Vord Hill to the east of the dyke. It is constructed from local stones with the largest slabs and boulders placed either on end or on edge and forming the base. The human effort required would have been considerable and suggests a relatively high Neolithic population for Shetland—perhaps as much as 10,000. Although most likely built as a territorial boundary of some kind, the original purpose of the dyke is not certain. In historic times it acted as a boundary marker or ''hagri'', but its huge scale is difficult to reconcile with the available prehistoric human resources. It has been described as a "Bronze Age Berlin Wall", which may have separated two competing tribes. By contrast, "fealie dykes" were made of turf such as the nearby example at Burn of Feal less than east of the line of the Funzie Girt south of Skutes Water. Even when they had stone bases these dykes needed regular maintenance and in historic times were often mounted with fences to make them stock-proof.

History and scheduling

A strip of land wide that ran along the dyke's eastern side was once known as "Houbie", now the name of Fetlar's principal settlement. Fetlar was surveyed in 1850, at which time part of the Funzie Girt formed the east end of one of the important "marches" or property boundaries for Russeter, west of Colbinstoft on north Fetlar. At that time the oldest man on the island, one Andrew Johnson, claimed to have been on the last " riding" of the bounds in 1820. The northern, and most complete section of Funzie Girt has been protected as a

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, visu ...

since December 1957. The notification to Sir Harold Stanley Nicolson of Brough Lodge, Fetlar states that the protected area is "2000 yards or thereby" (i.e. about 1,828 metres) in extent. The text provides a detailed description and the associated map indicates the line of the wall. No land on either side is included. The scheduled area is however contiguous with that of the "irregular polygon" surrounding Whilsa Pund that received similar protection in 1998.

Folklore and music

A large rock known as "the Haljer o' Fivlagord" lies near the south end of the dyke. ''Fivl'' means "

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

" (or "trow" in

Shetland dialect Shetland dialect (also variously known as Shetlandic; broad or auld Shetland or Shaetlan; and referred to as Modern Shetlandic Scots (MSS) by some linguists) is a dialect of Insular Scots spoken in Shetland, an archipelago to the north of main ...

), suggesting that there was a belief at one time that the dyke had been constructed by these mythical creatures. Trolls were also supposed to inhabit a nearby cave on the coast. A local story concerns the farm at Colbinstoft to the west of the dyke on the north coast of Fetlar. The farmer desired a boundary fence for his property and promised that if one appeared during the night he would give up his best cow to the Finns. The next morning the dyke had appeared but the cow was gone. There is also a tradition that it was constructed as a result of a disagreement between two landowners.

Hjaltadans means "limping dance" and local folklore has it that a fiddler and his wife were dancing at night with trolls. They failed to notice the dawn and were all petrified in place when the sun rose, so turning the trolls into the circle of stones, with the two recumbent stones at the centre being the resting place of the humans.Schei (2006) p. 10 Debbie Scott, a

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

player from Papa Stour recorded the song "Da Hill o' Finnigirt – Da Burn o' Finnigirt" on her 1985 album ''The

Selkie Selkies are mythological creatures that can shapeshift between seal and human forms by removing or putting on their seal skin. They feature prominently in the oral traditions and mythology of various cultures, especially those of Celtic and ...

's Song'' which features guitarist Peerie Willie Johnson. There is also a fiddle tune called the "Muckle Reel O' Finnigirt", which accompanied a dance whose steps have now been lost, although it is known that it was played as a break from the more strenuous reels."The Fiddler's Companion"
Ceolas.org. Retrieved 17 May 2011.

References

;Notes ;Footnotes ;General references * Fenton, Alexander (1997) ''The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland''. Dundurn Press. * Gammeltoft, Peder (2010)
Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group
. ''Northern Lights, Northern Words''. Selected Papers from the FRLSU Conference, Kirkwall 2009, edited by Robert McColl Millar. * * Hunter, James (2000) ''Last of the Free: A History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland''. Edinburgh. Mainstream. *Jakobsen, Jakob (1897
''The Dialect and Place Names of Shetland''
T. & J. Manson. Published on-line by Archive.org. Retrieved 15 May 2011. * Schei, Liv Kjørsvik (2006) ''The Shetland Isles''. Grantown-on-Spey. Colin Baxter Photography. * Turner, Val (1998) ''Ancient Shetland''. London. B. T. Batsford/Historic Scotland.

External links

Black-and-white image of the dyke
by RCAHMS {{Prehistoric Shetland 2nd-millennium BC architecture in Scotland Buildings and structures in Shetland Archaeological sites in Shetland History of Shetland Scheduled monuments in Shetland Stone Age sites in Scotland Neolithic Scotland Walls in Scotland Fetlar Ancient dikes Stone monuments and memorials