Note 369 — Chapter LXXVIII · EARL VALTHIÓF’S DEATH.

In the Saga of Hakon Hakonson it is stated that Kolbein Hruga’s castle was on the island of Vigr, now Weir. It was to this stronghold that Snækoll Gunnason fled when he had slain Earl John (son of Harald Maddadson), the last of the Norse Earls of Orkney, in A.D. 1232; and the Saga states that the castle was so strong that it resisted all the efforts of the Earl’s friends to take it. In 1529 we learn from Jo. Ben that the ruins were still visible. Barry describes it as a small square tower, 15 feet square inside, and the walls 7 feet thick, strongly built with large stones, well cemented with lime. It is now a green mound, like the older Pictish towers; but to this day among the peasantry of the locality the mound bears the name of Cobbie Row’s (Kolbein Hruga’s) Castle.