Orkney Smr Note
Event ID 619387
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Orkney Smr Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/619387
In its discussion, RCAMS associates the monks of the place-
name with an event supposed to have taken place in Westray in
1137, when according to ch lxxii of Orkneyinga Saga, Tognvald
attending Mass at the church in the porp or village (i.e.
Pierowall) encountered a band of 16 strangers, who were tonsured
and unarmed. This incident however comes very abruptly in this
chapter, and may have been misplaced from ch lxxvii where it would
have been associated with the arrival of Bishop John at Knarston.
[R1], [R3], [R7], [R12], RCAMS loc cit
NOMENCLATURE - St Boniface is the dedication of the church.
Local opinion is not consistent as to the application of the names
'Munkerhoose' and 'Binnas mKirk'.
The 1879 Name-Book entry for 'Munger House' reads- '...
applies to what has evidently been an underground Picts House
situated close to and west of the Established Church. It has only
partly been excavated but one passage underground has been laid
open and altho not explored it seems to penetrate for some
distance in direction of the Church.' - This application of
'Munkerhoose' specifically to the stone structures W of the
church, is consistent with the usage by RCAMS in 1928, and with
the most prevalent modern local usage. By general consent it
applies to the structures known to be buried under the churchyard
as well as those in the cliff-section W of it. Marwick also
applies 'Munkerhoose' to the farm mound, and this usage also is
found today. RCAMS also gives the impression that 'Binnas Kirk'
was wholly interchangeable mis-appreciation of Marwick's
subsequent statements. [R2], [R6], [R11], RCAMS loc cit
This is a complex and rich site covering an area of
approximately one hectare, partly occupied by the old parish
church and its burial ground, which is in use. The complex
comprises late Iron Age or Pictish settlement, possibly continuing
into Early Norse times and having a monastic element; a farm-
mound; and the derelict church, the fabric of which is mediaeval
and in association with which are a hog-backed gravestone and two
separate discoveries of incised cross-slabs.
CHURCH - Nave of C12th church is the core of the present
fabric; the Traill burial-ground immediately E occupies site of
chancel. The nave was extended W by 8ft in 1700; present overall
dimensions 37ft 11in x 21ft 6in. Kirkness in 1921 wrote
as if the church were still in use in 1920, but by 1930 according
to RCAMS it was disused and in need of repair. It is now in a
very sorry state; many holes in the slab-covered roof, the
structural timbers decaying, the gallery and furnishings in a
state of collapse, the whole very damp. RGL Jun 82.
HOG-BACK & CROSS-SLABS - Immediately outside the Traill
burial-place is a hog-backed grave-monument or red sandstone,
lying E-W, 5ft 1in long x 12in wide at E end, 16.5in at W end, 8in
and 10in high at these ends; three rows of shingle representation
on the sloping top. It is now difficult to confirm the RCAMS
measurements, as only the top of the stone is visible, the level
of the regularly-mown grass having risen around it. The ornament
on the stone was already much worn from the weathering and the
stone is now at some risk from the lawnmower. In 1920, when for
the first time burials were made on the N side of the church, a
cross-slab was found at a depth of some 3ft; it was broken on
removal and a portion left in the ground. The major portion now
in the National Museum is 23in x 12.5in, unshaped, incised on one
side with an encircled cross patee above which is a small equal-
armed cross, each arm of which terminates in a crescent. In 1966,
a second cross-slab was found in grave-digging near the NE corner
of the church. In Tankerness House Museum, it is a water-worn
beach-slab, roughly elliptical in shape, standing 790mm high (but
with an unknown additional length buried in the display stand),
320mm wide at max. near top, 175mm wide at base, 64mm to 69mm
thick; the sandy flagstone has been broken into three pieces and
repaired with cement. The obverse has a weakly-executed encircled
cross pate with a more badly-incised square-armed cross above it.
On the reverse is a curious rectilinear figure apparently intended
to represent a standing, robed human figure. The carving has been
executed by pecking, and the lines thus formed have a somewhat
unfinished appearance.
MUNKERHOOSE - It is locally believed that ancient structures
underlie the ground to the S of the original churchyard-extension,
as well as underlying the original churchyard and filling the
space between it and the shore, where copious structures are
exposed in the erosion-section. In 1928 the site was described as
a group of huts with connecting passages, and in the section there
opened a flag-covered passage 3ft 5in high and 2ft 7in wide, some
15ft S of which could be seen a stretch of curved wall. At the S
end was an extensive kitchen-midden deposit containing shells and
pottery. The open passage can no longer be seen, but erosion is
active; the effect of the broken rocks offshore is to channel the
force of the sea to a few limited places, where deep geos are
being cut into the deposits. Very heavy stonework is exposed in
numerous places, the deposits being just short of 3m in thickness;
on the grass surface of the upper slope of the banks, there are
projecting edge-slabs further indicating buildings. The whole
suggests an Iron Age and Pictish settlement, very likely
originally centred on a broch, and certainly continuing in
occupation well into the early mediaeval period.
RGL Jun 82.
In the section, at HY 4877 5274, four fragments of composite
cone comb were found by C J Arnold, Dept of Archaeology,
Southampton University, and donated to Tankerness House Museum,
1975.
FARM MOUND - In an area of rough grass immediately N of the
churchyard - thus bounded by the churchyard to the S and by the
sea to the W - is an extensive, rounded mound some 1m high above
the general ground level although with deposits which, in the
cliff-section and in rabbit-scrapes on the sides of the mound
itself, the exposures reveal a composition of dark loamy earth
with some shell material, i.e. characteristic 'farm mound'
material - a deposit very different from the tumbled confusion of
stone structures in the area W of the churchyard.
RGL Jun 82.
On his next page Marwick states, 'Binnas Kirk is another old
name for this same church site ... According to one old Papey man,
Binnas Kirk was supposed to be a separate structure from the
present church of St Boniface, and was situated on the mound
outside the churchyard wall. An old tradition, he informed me,
had it that the people in St Boniface one day heard the folks
singing in Binnas Kirk a short distance away. An another fragment
told how a woman lived there who was so irreverent as to bake
bread on Sundys. These facts I record as bits of genuine
tradition, but I confess myself utterly unable to offer any
probable explanation of their origin.' In his name-gazetteer,
Marwick inconsistently applies 'Munkerhoose' to the old parish
church, but Binnas Kirk he gives as 'an almost obsolete name for
the old parish church, or mound adjacent.'
Today, 'Munkerhoose' is still applied to the stone structures
and is understood by some to cover the farm-mound also. 'Binnas
Kirk' is understood by some to be the same as Munkerhoose, by
others to be simply a name for the parish church. (It seems
however, that this may have arisen from a popular-etymology
confusion between the names Binnas and Boniface, which
philologically are unconnected). According to W Irvine however,
Binnas Kirk is specifically the mound N of the churchyard - the
farm-mound - which seems to perpetuate the strand of tradition
recorded by Marwick. It appears likely therefore that 'Binnas
Kirk' is a recollection of a church other than the parish church,
and that this church was specifically associated with the farm-
mound. Irvine Links
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]