Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016320
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016320
All that survives of this church, the first built 111 Kirkwall and the kirk of the place-name, is a weathered but still impressive doorway now set into a wall in St Olaf's Wynd. Carved of sandstone blocks, it has a heavily ornate moulding. It is thought that the church may may been built by Earl Rognvald Brusason, who is recorded in Orkneyinga Saga as having a residence in Kirkwall in the mid 11th century and who was Olaf's foster-son. It was to this church that the relics of St Magnus were brought from Birsay, prior to the building of St Magnus Cathedral. A hogback tombstone of 11th century date was found in the churchyard (now in Tankerness House Museum).
The later history of the church is uncertain, until the mid 16th century when Bishop Robert Reid is recorded as having reconstructed St Olaf's Church.The carved sandstone aumbry preserved in the 19th-century St Olaf's Church is likely to belong to Bishop Reid's reconstruction of the older church. Although St Olaf's was eclipsed by the creation of St Magnus Cathedral, it clearly retained a role in the life of Kirkwall for several centuries.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
