Dr Hibbert on the Vitri/ied Cdint.s <f Orkney. 30$ 



Art. XVIII. — Notice of the Discovery of very extensive Vitri- 

 Jied Remains at Elsness, in the Island of Sanday, Orkney. 

 By S. Hibbert, M. D., F. R. S. E., &c. In a Letter to 

 Dr Breswter. 



My Dear Sir, 

 To the communication which you have honoured me by in- 

 serting in your Journal, from the Transactions of the Anti- 

 quarian Society of Scotland, I have now to make an important 

 addition. 



In my observations on the theories which have been pro- 

 posed to explain the vitrified forts of Scotland, you will find it 

 stated, that " from the information of Snorro, we were entitled 

 to expect that vitrification would be found on the mountain 

 tops of Norwegian provinces ; but that I was not aware that 

 Scandinavian antiquaries had yet pointed out their existence." 

 I also remarked, in another article inserted in the Archozologia 

 Scotica, (vol. iv. p. 184-,) that the establishment of such a fact 

 would throw no inconsiderable light upon the history of Scot- 

 tish vitrification. 



The solution of this question I have not yet obtained ; but 

 during the last month, I have arrived at the knowledge that 

 vitrified sites exist in the ancient Norwegian colony of Ork- 

 ney, which is quite as satisfactory. 



During my visit to these islands, whence I am but just ar- 

 rived, I must confess that I had but little expectation to find 

 in it such a confirmed vitrified site as I have now to describe. 

 Having many years since explored Shetland, the sister pro- 

 vince of Orkney, and examined most of its ward or watch hills, 

 without detecting any marks of vitrification upon them what- 

 ever ; having also found in every topographical account of 

 Orkney which I have consulted, a perfect silence regarding the 

 existence of vitrified remains, I came to the conclusion (cer- 

 tainly a precipitate one,) that it wa.s in vain to look for vitrified 

 sites where luxuriant woods had not subsisted ; that although 

 we read in the Orkneyinga Saga of numerous beacon signals 

 having been lighted up in Orkney and Shetland, yet that, as 

 these islands, from remote historic times, had been destitute of 



