Brew Settlement
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The site, and it's approaches are on private land, and until such time as public access is established, for their own welfare and safety, and the welfare and safety of grazing livestock, members of the public should NOT attempt to visit the site without first having obtained full permission to do so from all land owners/occupiers concerned.
Since an initial survey of the area in 1997, and a follow up survey in 2002 by researchers, including Dr. Gerry Bigelow of Bates College, Maine, U.S.A. and others, a small annual archaeological dig has taken place in the Quendale Links, to the NE of the Quendale Sand, Dunrossness to uncover what is believed to be part of the settlement of Brew, the seat of the Sinclair of Brew family, until it's abandonment due to being rapidly buried by blown sand sometime during the latter half of the 17th or early 18th century.
NOTE: The name "Brew" is generally accepted to have no definitive spelling, "Brew" and "Brow" being the commonest used, are both considered acceptable, less common are "Bru" and "Broo", but usually considered equally acceptable also.
The follow up survey of 2002 was able to identify a "well preserved" building buried under approx 2 metres of sand, and it is on this site that the annual dig which commenced in 2003 has focused. The project is American funded by Bates College, Maine, the University of Southern Maine and, in the 2005, the US National Science Foundation through its Artic Social Sciences programme, and is known as the "Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project". In the 2008 season which closed in late May, Dr. Bigelow led a team of 13, 10 of whom were Bates College students.
The "Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project" is a study of enviornmental history intended to discover more about changes in landscape, using archaeology as one of it's main tools. The obliteration of the township of Brew by wind blown sand was relatively rapid, but it has never been fully understood why the conditions which facilitated this occured at that time, with a number of possible theories having been put forward. These include a prevalence of numerous severe storms caused by what is referred to as a "little ice age", the rapidly changing land useage and agricultural intensification brought about by changes in land ownership and occupation, and the colonisation of the area by rabbits, who's burrows destabilised pre-existing dunes rendering them susceptable to wind erosion. By using "Optically Stimulated Luminescence" (OSL), a method of measuring when a layer of soil was excluded from light, along with straightforward archaeology, geology, sediment samples from nearby lochs (lakes), the dating of artefact fragments recovered from the site, and research in the Shetland Museum & Archives, Dr. Bigelow hopes to be able to produce a timeline of dates showing in chronological order the changes in the surrounding landscape which were the means of totally obliterating what is believed to have previously been a thriving and prosperous township. The project also has a secondary purely archaeological purpose, to discover what living conditions were like for the occupants of the township, as their land and buildings were progressively buried around them. From evidence gathered so far the use of "Optically Stimulated Luminescence" (OSL) methods have produced a date range of 1670 - 1712 for the site, and the dating of artefact fragments have been narrowed down to a period between 1690 - 1715.
The building which has been excavated is stone walled, and understood to be divided in to two rooms by an internal wall, also built of stone. Dr. Bigelow is of the opinion that it probably was not originally the main building of the settlement, but a barn or similar outbuilding. However there is evidence to suggest that it had been used as a residence at least near the end of the site's occupation. Ground level outside the building had risen by at least one metre during it's period of use, evidenced by the presence of farm waste remains in the sand throughout this depth immediately outside the walls. This rise in ground level had also necessitated that the occupiers of the building had had to construct stone steps within the building, to assist with entry/exit between the level of the floor of the buidling and the ever rising ground level outside.
Dr. Bigelow is also of the opinion that the site currently under exacvation very possibly may not have been the site of the original settlement occupied by the Sinclair of Brew family, but one to which they'd relocated to when an original site, located probably considerably closer to the Quendale Sand, had also been buried beneath blown sand at an earlier date.
The dig is scheduled to recommence again in the 2009 season, on what Dr. Bigelow describes as an "unusual opportuity" to learn more about, and eventually offer to the public, information on buildings and living conditions of this period. As although a few examples of buildings from the period still remain, most are larger castles or forts such as Scalloway Castle and Fort Charlotte.
