Archaeology InSites

“There was a great drinking-hall at Orphir, with a door in the south wall near the eastern gable, and in front of the hall, just a few paces down from it, stood a fine church” St. Nicholas Church is Scotland's only upstanding medieval round church. The church and associated high status settlement are mentioned in the Orkneyinga Saga. It was built on the direction of Earl Hakon Paulsson (d. 1122) in the early decades of the 12th century. He may have been inspired by what he saw on a pilgrimage he took to the Holy Land. The church is situated within the modern graveyard of Orphir, on the S coast of Mainland Orkney, close to the sea and overlooking the sheltered waters of Scapa Flow.

Tucked below the steep scree slopes and basalt cliffs towards the southwest end of Canna, the most westerly of the Small Isles, lies an oval enclosure long believed to be of early Christian origin. The placename – Sgorr nam Ban-naomha – translates as the ‘cliff of the holy women’ and there is little doubt that the location of this enclosure is as dramatic as it is isolated.