Orkney Smr Note

Date June 1982

Event ID 619389

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/619389

Tankerness House - pottery (131), bone objects, charred grain,

slate disc etc. (177-81)

RMS - stone ball (AS 40) , spearhead, dice, bone ring, pottery incl

some glazed (HR 193-208).

The chapel of St Tredwell stands on the SE upper slope of a

prominent conical mound, some 4.5m high, which forms a peninsula

at the margin of St Tredwell's Loch, separated from the land by a

patch of marshy ground. The steep stony slopes of the mound

continue down at the same angle below the loch surface into deep

water; it appears that the islet may be at least partly

artificial. The chapel was recorded in detail by Sir Henry Dryden

in 1870 and it and the adjacent prehistoric structures partly

cleared by Traill between that date and 1883.

The chapel on an island in a loch is briefly mentioned by the

C16th writer 'Jo Ben'. Brand treats in some detail the

pilgrimages which used to be made to the chapel and loch by people

seeking cures for eye afflictions. He mentions people making

money offerings; c.1880, Traill's excavation on the floor of the

chapel found 30 coins ranging from Charles II to George III. - The

persistence of the 'superstitious practices' is reiterated by

subsequent writers. [R1], [R2], [R7]

The chapel evidently was an unusually ornate building.

According to Neale it was one of very few churches in Orkney which

possessed tracery, and although not originally of Middle-Pointed

date, it had received additions in that style. This detail had

disappeared before Dryden made his drawings in 1870, nonetheless

enough architectural detail still survived to indicate a church of

some wealth. He recorded the internal measurements as 20ft 3in by

13ft 10in, within the walls that vary greatly in thickness, from

just over 3ft to a little under 5ft. In 1930 parts of the walls

still survived to a height of 6ft; dilapidation since that date

has been considerable, the floor is again choked with nettle-grown

rubble above which the walls stand up to 1.3m in the W and N, but

barely 0.3m high near the SE corner. The rubble from Traill's

excavations was built into two rectangular cairns against the

exterior S wall where they obscure it and the underlying

prehistoric structures.

[R3], [R4], [R5], RGL Jun 82, Sir Henry Dryden's drawings in

NMRS ORD/105/3-4

As well as the coins on the floor of the chapel, Traill found

a stone-laid grave outside the E wall which contained a female

burial. Outside the W gable-wall he entered a subterrenean

passage, varying from 2ft to 4ft in width and running N then NW

for some 33ft, entering a 'circular building'. On its way it

passed several doorchecks and a side-chamber. This passage most

likely was part of a complex of late Iron Age (post-broch)

buildings, on the wreckage of which the chapel is built. -

Although the opening into the passage can still be seen

immediately beside the NW corner of the chapel, it is choked with

rubble immediately inside. [R6], [R8].

Although none of the structures recorded or visible appears

itself to be a broch, the presence of a broch at the core of the

settlement-mound is very possible. On the lower SE slope of the

mound Dryden's plan showed a revetting wall; this is still

visible, up to 1.9m high, for a length of some 11m, its NE end

disappearing under Traill's spoil-cairns. It appears to be an

outer defensive wall or ring-work associated with the Iron Age

settlement.

According to Irvine, at a time some years ago when the water

was clear, a beautiful cross-slab was glimpsed from a boat close

to the islet. It was successfully grappled, but fell back to the

loch-bed before it could be got aboard.

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Jun 82.