Archaeology Notes
Event ID 645566
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645566
HY45SE 4 4964 5088.
(HY 4964 5088) Brough (NR)
St. Tredwell's Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)
Human Remains & Ancient Coins found AD 1879 (NAT)
OS 6"map, Orkney , 2nd ed., (1900).
This complex consists of the remains of the 12th century chapel of St. Tredwell and possibly the remains of an early Celtic christian establishment occupying a mound which could contain the remains of a broch, and a souterrain, possibly part of a post-broch settlement.
The chapel measures 29 ft 2 ins by 22ft 9 ins over walls (dry-built but harl-pointed) from 3 ft to 4ft 2ins thick standing, in 1930, to a maximum height of 6 ft. Sinclair (J Sinclair c1798) and Neale (J M Neale 1848) are the only authorities who support the spelling 'St. Tredwall' as opposed to 'St Tredwell'. The 'ancient coins' were thirty copper coins (Charles II, George II & III, two French and one Dutch) found at floor-level during Traill's excavation, and the 'human remains' were those of a woman discovered in a stone built grave about 7ft 6ins outside the east face of the chapel. There is a mound 6 to 8 ft in diameter to the SW of the chapel.
The evidence for the early christian establishment consists of the dedication to the Pictish St Tredwell (Triduana), and fragments of an enclosing wall which surrounds the base of the mound and of a small rectangular building which lies on the summit of the mound to the NW of the chapel, more ruined and apparently older.
Eighteen ft.N. of the chapel, but at a lower level, are the foundations of a circular building 9ft in diameter within walls of 2ft 6ins thick, standing 2 ft high in 1883, with an entrance 2 ft wide on the south.
The existence of a broch on the site is putative although the site is eminently suitable and a curved, battered wall with a maximum height of 6ft, exposed for a length of 38 ft on the SW of the mound at the lowest level may be associated.
Beneath the chapel Traill, in 1879, explored what Redford calls a souterrain, but which may be more comparable with the post-broch huts of Jarlshof (HU30NE1). He found passages and at least two subterranean corbelled buildings. (See W Traill 1883 for full description). Objects found included an iron spearhead 4 1/2 ins long, a ball of greenish serpentine 1 3/4 ins in diameter, a bone playing-disc and a bone ring (all in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] - HR 193, AS 40, HR 194 and 195 respectively) and fragments of red and brown pottery, some glazed and ornamented, (NMAS: HR 196), from a kitchen-midden composed mainly of pottery and shells on the SE side of the mound where signs of buildng showed.
Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1883 (Donations, W Traill); D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896; RCAHMS 1946; NMAS Catalogue 1892; C A Name Book 1879; H Marwick 1925; R Radford 1962; F T Wainwright Mss index (In possession of Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (HBM).
This complex now survives as an overgrown mound occupying the whole of a peninsula, surmounted by the ruins of St. Tredwell's Chapel, by the footings of the sub-rectangular building and the circular building to the NW & N respectively of the chapel, the 38ft of battered walling, and a modern enclosure to the SE of the chapel. The base of the mound is surrounded at the waters edge by the ruins of a modern wall and the earlier wall can not be traced.
The chapel is as described by RCAHMS, and is choked with tumble. Two rectangular heaps of excavated material lie against the outside of the S wall. Its SE corner overlies the N end of the battered walling which is as described by RCAHMS. Outside the W wall is the only visible trace of Traill's 'subterranean building', a short stretch of passage choked with rubble. There is no ground evidence of a pre-Norse Christian establishment. It is impossible to date the sub-rectangular and the circular buildings in their present state of preservation.
There are no positive traces of a broch, but as stated by RCAHMS, this is an ideal situation and the size of the mound and Traill's excavation report tends to suggest a broch overlaid by a later settlement.
Revised at 1/2500
Visited by OS (AA) 1 July 1970.
Bone dice found; RMS HR 194. Numbered 3, 6, 4, 5. Except for one dot on the '5' side and those on the '4' side all dots enclosed by a poorly executed circle 40 x 16mm. Find spot unknown.
D V Clarke 1970; E J MacKie 1971.
Local informants state that a farmer found a large stone cross in 4 ft of water just off the SW shore of this promontory. He tried to raise it with an oar, but failed and it is still in the water.
Visited by OS (AA) 8 June 1973.
As part of a MPhil thesis submitted to St Andrews University, an integrated survey of this site, both on land and underwater was carried out in 1991. A topographical survey of the site and its immediate environs showed the current extent of the site. Soil samples were taken from two transects across the site. Analysis of the samples by magnetic susceptibility, a technique which locates areas of human occupation where the iron content of the sediments has been enhanced by burning, showed that the site had indeed originally been insular. High scores were registered on the brough itself and low scores on the floodplain. The technique also picked up the location of buried midden deposits inside the low enclosure wall, and an eroding land surface on the floodplain terrace. A contour survey showed the location of a buried causeway, a probable landing area for boats and the original extent of the site which roughly followed the low enclosure wall.
Artefacts found on the site, along with the types of buildings which remain and their relationship to one another have shown that the site has been in use for at least 1500 years. The site occupies a commanding and easily visible position on the island, with good access to the surrounding land by water. This was probably permanently and intensively occupied and was not just a temporary refuge.
A Bowman 1992; 1992.
