Catpund

About

Catpund is a quarry site in Shetland, Scotland, where steatite vessels were cut from the rock from prehistory onwards. The quarrying marks are still visible today.

History: Steatite is also known as soapstone, or, in the Shetland dialect, "diales", "kleber", "klever", or "clammel". These terms have their origin in Old Norse. It has a number of properties that made it an attractive material to past peoples. The high talc content means that it is soft, so easily carved, it hardens on exposure to air or heat and it can be heated and cooled without shattering. Evidence of quarrying from Catpund has been recognised from the 1940s at the latest. An excavation in 1988 revealed part of the quarry floor including the hollows remaining from over one hundred soapstone vessels. Similar vessels were discovered in the later Norse levels at Jarlshof dating to the 12th and 13th centuries AD.

Description: Quarrying scars can be seen along the bank of the burn of Catpund where vessels were chiseled from the rock. Similarities with vessels from Jarlshof indicate that the quarried vessels were likely of Norse date.