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Field Visit
Date 16 July 1930
Event ID 1125422
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1125422
St. Ninian's Kirk and Burial-ground, St. Ninian's Isle. Off the W. coast of the parish is a small peninsula known as ‘St. Ninian's Isle’, connected with the adjoining shore by a long sandy ‘ayre’ which gives the name of ‘Ireland’ to the adjacent township. On the island is an old burial-ground marking the site of a chapel dedicated to the saint whose name it bears. This chapel is mentioned by Sibbald (1) and Brand (2), but appears to have been demolished at some time after 1744 (3). Its remains have now entirely disappeared.
SLAB WITH OGHAMS. Within the graveyard was found a slab of sandstone, 2 ft. 6 ½ in . long by 10 ½ in. broad and 2 in. thick, with an inscription in oghams cut on a narrow edge. The inscription, owing to a fracture at one end, is not quite complete, and its significance is doubtful (4). The stone is now in the National Museum.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 16 July 1930.
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed. (1903)
(1) Sibbald, Description, p. 15. (2) A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland Firth and Caithness, p. 84. (3) Goudie, The Celtic and Scandinavian Antiquities of Shetland, p. 32, footnote. (4) See P.S.A.S., xii (1877-8), p. 24, and, for readings of the oghams, ibid., xviii (1883-4), p. 205, xxvi (1891-2), p. 296, Nicolson, Keltic Researches, p. 70, and E.C.M., iii, p. 18.
