Field Visit
Date 4 September 1930
Event ID 1126111
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1126111
St. Laurence's Church, Papil. The site of St. Laurence's Church, in the churchyard at Papil, is occupied by a much later building, itself now rapidly falling into decay. No trace of the earlier structure survives, but a description of it, written about 1700 (1), suggests that it had a round tower like the church on Egilsay in Orkney (HY43SE 1).* Interest also attaches to the site on account of two fine sculptured monuments associated with it.
The first of these, known as the Papil Stone, is a rectangular slab of red sandstone, rounded at the head, measuring 5 ft. 10 in. high, 1 ft. 5 ½ in. wide at the bottom, expanding to 1 ft. 7 ½ in. at the top, and varying in thickness from 1 ½ to 2 ½ in. On one face it is sculptured with unique designs, partly in relief and partly incised. It is preserved in the National Museum, and has been described as follows (2):
"At the top is a cross having four equal arms with expanded ends enclosed within a circle, except at the bottom, where it is joined on to a short narrow shaft in the centre of the stone. The head of the cross is plain, but the four almond-shaped spaces between the arms are filled in with interlaced work, that in the spaces between the left and top arms and between the top and right arms consisting of a circular ring combined with a figure-of-eight ring having two pointed ends; and that in the spaces between the right and bottom arms and between the bottom and left arms consisting of a figure-of-eight ring having one pointed end and one round end, combined with a circular ring and an oval ring with a pointed end.
"The shaft of the cross is ornamented at the bottom by a continuous incised line forming two bends, like those of a figure-of-eight; and enclosing a pair of loops within each bend.
"At each side of the circular head of the cross below are spandrels enclosing triquetra knots, and on each side of the shaft are a pair of ecclesiastics with pointed hoods and crosiers, one of the pair on each side having a book satchel slung over the shoulder. Below this is a rectangular panel enclosing a beast with its tail curled over its back. At the bottom area pair of creatures with human bodies, arms and heads, but with the legs and beak of a bird, each holding an axe over the shoulder, one with the right hand and the other with the left, and pecking at a human head in the middle."
The second stone, which is a slab of the same material, is still at the church of Papil in West Burra. It is 5 ft. 4 ½ in. long by 1 ft. 3 ½ in. in greatest breadth, and bears an incised cross of simple form. The character of the cross will be best understood from the illustration (Fig. 577) (3).
RCAHMS 1946, visited 4 September 1930.
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed. (1903)
(1) Sibbald, Description, p. 26. "Here is a Church ... the steeple whereof, will be five or six stories high, though a little Church, yet very fashionable, and its Sanctum Sanctorum (or Quire) yet remains." Sibbald's informant was the Rev. Hugh Leigh, minister of Bressay, Burray and Quarff from 1672-1719. (2) E.C.M., pt. iii, pp. 10-15. (3) See also P.S.A.S., xv (1880-1), p. 204.
OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed. (1903) (unnoted)
*Cf. RCAHMS 1946, i, p.44 footnote
