The St Ninian's Treasure

ION: T C I to F T C A F

ries o t s d ne magi i d n real a

re u s a Tre , Emma,

’s ik, Seth, Keira n a i Nin d, Rosh bert

t y Skye, Davi , James & Ro S e Th as told b ni, Alfie Ha

Shetland Arts runs creative workshops for young people aged 7-11 giving access to a broad range of arts activities in a participatory learning environment. They work alongside creative professionals to make new work. These workshops are supported by a Robertson Trust Award.

FACT to FICTION:

The St Ninian’s Treasure 2020

FACT to FICTION Led by creative practitioner Jane Cockayne, the Fact to Fiction workshops used craft, creative writing and history to explore the story of the St Ninian's Isle treasure.

Local historian Laurie Goodlad came to the first session and introduced some of the known facts about the treasure, then the group then went to visit the replicas of the treasure on display at the museum. They then explored some of the mysteries and unanswered questions surrounding the treasure: Who owned it?

Why did they bury it?

Why was there a porpoise bone among the treasure?

Why was the treasure found buried upside down?

Over the next four sessions the children used their imaginations to create a story with wonderful illustrations about the possible circumstances surrounding the origins and burial of the St Ninian’s Treasure.

Finally, they had a visit from Douglas Coutts who found the treasure in 1958 when he was just 15 years old! He was able to tell his story and answer many questions the children had.

Fact to Fiction Team: Skye Polson, 12 David Cockayne, 10 Roshik Saravanan, 9 Seth Corbett, 9 Keira Duncan, 8 Emma Duncan, 11 Hani Nicolson, 9 Alfie Sinclair, 10 James Aitken, 8 Robert Aitken, 7 Jane Cockayne – Workshop Leader Jono Sandilands – Workshop Assistant With special thanks to Laurie Goodland and Douglas Coutts

THE FACTS: > 28 silver objects and the jaw bone of a porpoise were found in the 1950s, buried under a cross-marked slab close to the altar in the old chapel site on St Ninian’s Isle in Shetland > The silver pieces included jewellery, parts of weapons and items used for feasting such as bowls and a spoon. Raw silver is not found in Shetland so it must have come from elsewhere. All of the brooches had some of their glass settings missing and some of them looked like they had replacement pins. > The treasure is thought to have been Pictish and therefore about 1200 years old (AD 800). The Picts lived in the north and east of Scotland and were known as the ‘painted people’ as they painted their bodies.

THE FICTION...

Once upon a time (about 1200 years ago)

there was a wealthy Pictish family who lived in the north of Scotland. Chief Duggard was the head of the family and one of the reasons he was wealthy was because he had inherited lots of land. His wife was called Mael and they had two young children, a boy called Bridei & and a girl called Eithne. Sometimes the family painted their faces and they looked terrifying to their enemies.

The family had a collection of treasured silver items, which were made by skilled crafts people or stolen from their enemies after a battle. To fasten their cloaks they used hand crafted silver brooches. Mael’s favourite brooch was carved with two dragon’s heads, which had glass jewels inset for their eyes.

Bridei’s favourite piece was the silver spoon, it had a tiny dogs head with its tongue sticking out, licking whatever was in the bowl of the spoon!

The painted people began to hear rumours of fearsome Viking warriors arriving on ships and taking everything they saw. Chief Duggard wanted to keep his family and treasures safe. He had heard tales of magical islands in the north where you could see dancing lights in the winter sky. He decided to set sail to find these islands and make a new life for his family far away from the Viking warriors. The family put their precious treasure in a wooden box made from larch, which they had been given as a gift of friendship by a tribe from the south.

After sailing for 3 days Bridei spotted land and the sky above it was alive with streaks of dancing emerald. The family came ashore at Bigton and in the next few weeks they began to gather stones and build a home. The children liked to play on the beach that had sea on both sides. The beach stretched out to an island called St Ninians where there was a small chapel. One day Eithne saw a neesik (porpoise) playing in the water and they became friends.

After fifty years had passed Bridei and Eithne still lived at Bigton with their own children and families. Chief Duggard and Mael had both died happy knowing that they had escaped from the Viking warriors and kept their children and treasure safe!

Over time the silver brooches had become worn and some of the fastening pins had

to be replaced. One day the bottom of the house flooded and some of the treasure was damaged so it was decided to keep it up high, near the roof, behind a large stone in the wall.

One day Eithne went for a walk on the beach and she saw the skeleton of her neesik on the sand. She was sad, as they had been friends for many years. Eithne bent down and picked up a piece of bone from the neesik’s jaw so she could remember him always. As she looked up she could see the shapes of Viking galley boats on the horizon so she ran to the house to tell Bridei. They knew that the Vikings stole people’s jewels and land so they decided to hide their treasure and sail away to safety.

The old priest from St Ninian’s Isle suggested that they hide their box of treasure in the chapel on the island. As Eithne and Bridei carried the wooden box across the beach to the chapel they thought of their brave mum and dad who had protected them and their

treasure from the Vikings.

The priest suggested that they dig a hole in the earth floor of the church to hide the treasure. Eithne lifted the lid of the box and placed the bone inside because her neesik had been more precious to her than all the silver treasure. Someone shouted ‘the Vikings have landed’ so they quickly threw the box in the ground.

The priest picked up a stone slab and placed it on top of the box to protect it and then covered it over with earth.

The family managed to get on board their boat and set sail towards the horizon but a storm whipped up the sea and the boat sank with no survivors.

On 4th July 1958 a schoolboy called Douglas Coutts went to St Ninians Isle to help excavate the remains of a church. It was the first day of the dig that summer and Douglas, who was 15, was given a trowel and sent to dig in a corner. He uncovered a stone slab and called the professor to come and see it.

When the stone slab was lifted there were rounded, greenish, brown shapes peeping out the earth. Douglas Coutts had discovered the St Ninian’s Treasure and was the first human to see it for about 1200 years!

THE END *

Some more facts about the St Ninians Isle Treasure: > The greenish/brown, rounded objects that were peeping through the earth were upturned silver bowls. As the treasure was found upside down in the ground it has led to the speculation that it was buried in a hurry. > The box, which contained the treasure, was made of a type of wood called of larch, which did not grow in Shetland or Scotland at the time the treasure was buried. When Douglas Coutts uncovered the treasure the wooden box had disintegrated and turned to sludge. > The stone slab, which lay underground and covered the treasure, was engraved with a cross. The cross was on the underside of the stone slab and was only visible when it was turned over. > The Vikings landed in Shetland about AD 850 but had already been raiding mainland Scotland.

A Shetland Arts creative project supported by The Robertson Trust