Monkhouse Green
Monastery (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Brooch (Bronze), Mount (Bronze)
Site Name Monkhouse Green
Classification Monastery (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Brooch (Bronze), Mount (Bronze)
Alternative Name(s) Monkerhouse Green; Monker Green; Warebeth Cemetery
Canmore ID 1554
Site Number HY20NW 11
NGR HY 237 083
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1554
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stromness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY20NW 11 237 083
(HY 2374 0821) Monastery (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed, (1903).
A green mound, said to be the site of an ancient building (traditionally an establishment of monks) is situated immediately to the west of the grave yard (HY20NW 12 - Chapel, Graveyard, Broch), and near the centre of Monkhouse Green.
Name Book 1880.
A portion of a bronze mounting, 1 3/4 by 1 inch, with a Celtic pattern inlaid in gold, was found about 1889 in the Monker Green in an extension to be burial ground and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, GA 44) on 8th February 1892 by WGT Watt (PSAS 1887).
A terminal portion of a Celtic penannular brooch, regarded by Shetelig (H Shetelig ed.) as possibly the remains of the central portion of a Eltic brooch, was found near the same place some time before 1887 and is now in the Hunterian Museum (13.1914.863); a facsimile is in the NMAS (FC 161) (Accession card index NMAS)
J W Cursiter 1887.
There are no surface indications of a monastery in the area known a Monkhouse Green, other than the green mound mentioned by the Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB). The graveyard has been extended to include this area, and although dry-stone walling and midden heaps of a domestic settlement have been discovered during grave-digging, (See HY20NW 12) nothing has been found recently to confirm that this is a monastic site, although the tradition still survives locally.
Visited by OS(NKB) 16 September 1964.
Emergency excavation carried out by B.Bell for NOSAS in 1980.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
'The Orkney Herald' (November 1889) reported the discovery and removal of stones, displaced when trenching work for a graveyard was carried out.
