Fabric Recording
Date 2015
Event ID 1026050
Category Recording
Type Fabric Recording
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1026050
HY 35900 28820 (Canmore ID: 2170) The Scottish Medieval Castles and Chapels C14 Project (SMCCCP) is a nationwide funded buildings archaeology project investigating the archaeological potential of building materials surviving within upstanding medieval structures. The SMCCCP combines the survey and analysis of medieval buildings and environments, with the analysis and radiocarbon dating of surviving building materials. The project seeks to constrain building chronologies, and investigate the technical conversion and palaeoenvironmental potential of source materials.
The upstanding masonry of the church on Eynhallow was investigated over a four day period in 2015. The building was found to display a range of phase-specific constructional techniques and materials, including various maerl-lime (produced from the burning of coralline algae rhodoliths), limestone-lime and clay mortars, and these enabled much of its medieval and later development to be re-interpreted on site. Various loose mortar and environmental samples were also taken for further laboratory based analysis. Significant discoveries included: the remains of an earlier, primary, square chancel beneath the walls of the upstanding building; the remains of a medieval doorway in the SW of the nave, and the remains of an opening in the upper W wall of the nave which suggests the eastern cell is indeed the remains of a tower.
These discoveries, and research at other broadly contemporary sites in Orkney, suggest that the church on Eynhallow is not the constructionally idiosyncratic structure that has previously been suggested. The building displays a range of masonry techniques seen quite widely throughout the region in the Late Norse period, whilst the rebuilding of a 12th-century square chancel on a longer plan in the later medieval period conforms to similar developments seen in many churches throughout NW Europe. Moreover, the form of the openings in the W tower suggest that physical and visual access from the nave was privileged, and this also conforms to contemporary practice in insular western towers elsewhere; this is a feature usually associated with the display of burial. The other openings in the other walls of the W tower, however, are more unusual and demanding of explanation, as these also allowed some form of access to the western cell from outside the church and vice-versa. This focus on the display of burial from various perspectives, the
sound of the bells, the island's geographical position midway between Egilsay and Birsay, and various other strands of evidence, suggest this site may be the focus of a ritual associated with the Magnus pilgrimage route.
This work on the church was undertaken in conjunction with an analysis of the upstanding fabric of the adjacent domestic complex and a walkover survey of the wider island made by George Geddes (RCAHMS), and a more holistic joint publication of the medieval and later archaeology of the island is intended.
Archive: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) intended
Funder: Historic Environment Scotland
Mark Thacker – University of Edinburgh
(Source: DES, Volume 16)
