Archaeology Notes

Event ID 643682

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/643682

HY31NE 2 3997 1872

(HY 3997 1872) St. Mary's Kirk (NR) (Site of)

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

The site of this Roman Catholic chapel was on a knoll formed by the remains of a structure, believed to have been perhaps a broch or circular chapel. The structure '... has been built of two concentric walls ...'

'Mr Marwick, tenant, has dug up human bones, whale- bone, shells and what he thought to be gravestones near this place. He also demolished ruins adjoining this spot...'

Name Book 1880.

A grass-and-nettle-covered mound, c. 1.4m. high, squared off by ploughing, from which protrude large broch-like stones, situated on a low hill in the middle of a cultivated field. There is no trace of a building on the mound, and no signs of walling in it.

Mr H Seaton of Grind, Evie, uncovered a flagstone at HY 3996 1870, close tp the mound, which was supported by two parallel stone walls, whilst ploughing last year. Underneath the flagstone was a pile of bones so he immediately replaced the stone and covered it with soil. No trace can now be seen.

The site may have been occupied by a broch and its adjacent outbuildings, but, pending excavation, the precise nature of the remains cannot be determined.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RL), 3 June 1967.