March 2024

Toilets are a major interest of mine. I suppose it’s the result of so many years of analysing groups of medieval pottery thrown away in cesspits.  I have published a short account of the history of sanitation in St Albans, where I worked for many years, and recently gave a talk on the evidence for the history of sanitation in Orkney. So I am always on the lookout for interesting loos of any age. The Northern Isles have more than their fair share, it seems to me, of rather special toilets. I have already drawn attention to the delightful Hillswick community toilet in Shetland with its flowery forecourt. Nearer at hand is the salt water toilet on Shapinsay.

The island of Shapinsay is only a half-hour ferry ride from Kirkwall, Orkney’s principal town. It is noteworthy for its regular pattern of square, 4-hectare fields, the result of a mid-19^th century landowner’s agricultural improvements. David Balfour’s family owned the entire island by that point. In order to re-house some of the workers he displaced to build his ‘castle’, he reconstructed the nearby Shoreside village as a model village and re-named it Balfour village. The 19^th century public loo was just one of its features.

I have been going on occasional trips to Shapinsay since I arrived in Orkney twelve years ago, but somehow I never noticed the little stone building tucked down on the beach below the level of the pier, just as you get off the ferry. I suppose I must have been looking around for more conspicuous buildings, such as the Dishan Tower, also known as the Douche, a 17^th century dovecot converted into a salt water shower in the 19^th century, or the Gas House (gasometer), another 19^th century tower at the north end of the village. Or indeed the monstrous Scottish Baronial edifice known as Balfour Castle.

The Shapinsay salt water toilet is a single-storey stone building built at the top of the beach with a space below, so that at high tide the sea will wash underneath it and remove the waste. It has two rooms, each approached via a short passage on the landward side. (N.B. it is no longer in use as a working toilet; there is a modern facility nearby)

The design is extremely simple. Each room has a vertical wood-topped stone slab for sitting on, dividing the paved floor of the entrance area from the hole down to the beach.  There is room for two people to sit side by side.  The roof is made of stone slabs, and there is a tasteful if potentially damaging growth of ivy over the landward side. Although in fair condition, the building is on the At-Risk register, although it is unlisted. It doesn’t help that apparently no-one is quite sure who owns it.

Using the tides to remove sewage is a practical idea. The 12^th century bishop’s Palace in Kirkwall has a latrine chute which emptied onto what would have been a beach in those days. I wonder how many other loos there were in the past in the islands, which used the surrounding sea and its twice-daily tides to deal with their waste?

The Balfour Village salt water toilet is a worthy addition to my collection!