Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Isbister, St Mary's Kirk

Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Chapel (Medieval), Site (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Isbister, St Mary's Kirk

Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible), Chapel (Medieval), Site (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Skaill; Grind

Canmore ID 1990

Site Number HY31NE 2

NGR HY 3997 1872

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1990

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Evie And Rendall
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Archaeology Notes

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.

Activities

Field Visit (May 1981)

As described, very prominent, almost vertical-sided,

ploughing-truncated mound.

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) May 81.

Publication Account (2002)

HY31 17 ST. MARY'S KIRK 1

HY/34018

Possible broch in Evie and Rendall consisting of a grass-covered mound reported to contain the ruins of a broch or a circular chapel, built of two concentric walls [1].

Source: 1. OS card HY 31 NE 2.

E W MacKie 2002

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions