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Voe, Old Olnafirth Church And Churchyard

Armorial Panel (18th Century) (1714), Burial Ground (Post Medieval), Church (18th Century)

Site Name Voe, Old Olnafirth Church And Churchyard

Classification Armorial Panel (18th Century) (1714), Burial Ground (Post Medieval), Church (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) St Olaf's ;

Canmore ID 1208

Site Number HU46SW 1

NGR HU 40492 63608

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1208

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Shetland Islands
  • Parish Delting
  • Former Region Shetland Islands Area
  • Former District Shetland
  • Former County Shetland

Archaeology Notes

HU46SW 1 40492 63608

For Voe Kirk (HU 4048 6376), see HU46SW 12.

(HU 4050 6360) Church (NAT) (Ruins)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1973)

The ruins of an early 18th. century mission church, whose successor was built in 1868. (Name Book 1878) An armorial panel over the entrance bears the date 1714.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930.

The church, as described and planned by RCAHM, still stands to roof height. The grave yard around the church is still in use.

Visited by OS (RL) 21st May 1968.

Architecture Notes

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

Scottish Records Office

Bruce of Symbister on permanent loan to Shetland Archives

Olnafirth.

Sketch floor plan of Kirk of Olnafirth.

Rebuilt 1770.

ND

Activities

Field Visit (9 July 1930)

Church, Voe. This ruined church, which stands in a graveyard on the northern shore of Olna Firth, about 150 yds SE of its modern successor, is roofless, although its walls are fairly entire. It is a simple, plain building of the early 18th century, oblong on plan with a rectangular wing projecting from the centre of the north side. Externally the body measures 54 ft 3 in from E to W by 25 ft from N to S. The thickness of the side walls is 2 ft 6 in, but the gables are 6 ins thicker. The masonry throughout is of harled rubble with dressings of freestone. Near the centre of the S wall is a built-up doorway and, farther W, a recess like a press, both probably of later construction. There are four windows on the S side, two of them in the upper part of the wall, while there are none to the N. At each end is a round arched doorway with a lintelled window in the upper part of the gable above. The wing is 22 ft 3 in long and 19 ft broad, and has two storeys, the upper of which is reached by a forestair on the W. The chamber which it forms was latterly a vestry, and has a window in each side-wall, a fireplace in its gable, and on the S a built-up doorway opening into a gallery that extended along the N. wall and across both ends of the church.

The lower storey, which is entered through the gable, was the burial-place of the Giffords of Busta (HU36NW 9), and in it was buried Thomas Gifford, Steward-Depute of the county, author of 'An Historical Description of the Zetland Isles', written in 1733, twenty-seven years before his death, and frequently cited in the present volume (RCAHMS 1946). A panel over the entrance bears his shield of arms conjoined with that of his wife Elizabeth Mitchell, their initials, and the date of their marriage, 1714 (1). On each of the interior side walls is a sepulchral slab bearing the Gifford arms with the motto SPARE NOUGHT, in one case spelled without the U; but the inscriptions below are illegible.

RCAHMS 1946, visited 9 July 1930.

(1) Grant, Zetland Family Histories, p. 86.

Measured Survey (1930)

The church at Voe was surveyed by RCAHMS c.1930. The plan was redrawn in ink and subsequently published at a reduced size (RCAHMS 1946 Fig. 464).

Publication Account (1997)

Although roofless, the walls of this substantial rectangular church survive in good condition; it is built of harled rubble with freestone surrounds to the windows and arched doorways, and the iron fittings for external storm shutters can be seen on the window jambs. The most interesting feature is the burial aisle built as a projecting wing in the centre of the north side of the church; the upper storey, reached by an external stair, was used as a vestry and originally had access to an upper gallery within the church, and the ground floor was the burial aisle of the Giffords of Busta (see no. 14). An arched entrance in the north gable is embellished with an armorial panel above, bearing the arms of Thomas Gifford and Elizabeth Mitchell with their initials and the date of their marriage in 1714. Inside there is a fine graveslab set into the long wall on either side, each carved with the Gifford arms and the motto 'spare nought' above, and a long but now illegible inscription on the lower part of the slab.

To the north-west of the modern graveyard wall, there are traces of an earlier curvilinear enclosure, perhaps belonging to an earlier church.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).

Archaeological Evaluation (February 2008)

HU 4048 6355 An assessment was undertaken in February 2008 on land adjoining the S side of Voe Cemetery in

response to a proposal by Shetland Islands Council to extend the graveyard. A total of three trenches were opened by hand; all were sited to investigate a topographical anomaly. This was shown to be of natural origin. One feature was identified as being of probable archaeological interest; this consisted of a metalled surface, of probable post-medieval date.

Archive: RCAHMS, SAT

Funder: Shetland Islands Council

H Moore and G Wilson (EASE Archaeology), 2008

References

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