Archaeology Notes

Event ID 641104

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/641104

HP50SE 6 56693 04094

(HP 5668 0412) Church (NAT) (In Ruins).

OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1900).

A roofless 12th century church, standing in its graveyard. It is oblong and single-chambered, and measures 47'5" (14.5m) by 22'2" (6.76m) over walls varying from 3'6" (1.1m) to 4'6" (1.37m) in thickness. The east portion has evidently been rebuilt upon the old foundation for a length of some 17' (5.19m). The fabric is in an extremely bad state of repair. The masonry, local rubble in lime mortar, is rough.

A built-up doorway can still be traced at the west end of the south wall, but the present entrance is in the west gable and is archaic in appearance, having inclined jambs - a Celtic, not a Romanesque, feature. To the south of the church are eight headstones in the form of rude stone crosses, and within the church are the tombs of two 16th century Bremen merchants.

RCAHMS 1946.

The ruin of an Established church dismantled about 1770. The graveyard is still in use.

Name Book 1878

The roofless shell of a church as described and planned by the RCAHMS. The graveyard, now enlarged, is still used and the headstones as illustrated are in situ.

Visited by OS (NKB) 5 May 1969

One of the window lintels has a fish (or serpent?) carved on it, which clearly pre-dates its use as a lintel stone.

Information contained in letter from V Turner, Shetland Amenity Trust, 14 September 1989.