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Kirkwall, St Ola's Church

Hogback Stone (Early Medieval)

Site Name Kirkwall, St Ola's Church

Classification Hogback Stone (Early Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) St Olaf's Church

Canmore ID 2481

Site Number HY41SE 8.01

NGR HY 450 111

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2481

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Kirkwall And St Ola
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

St Olaf’s Kirk, Kirkwall, Orkney, hogback gravestone fragment

Measurements: L 0.97m, W 0.35m to 0.43m, H 0.24m to 0.27m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: HY 450 111

Present location: The Orkney Museum, Kirkwall.

Evidence for discovery: found in 1970/1971 during trench-digging in the area of the former churchyard of St Olaf’s.

Present condition: broken at one end and very worn.

Description

There are traces on one long side of three rows of trimmed rectangular tegulae. The ridge has been flattened by use as a whetstone.

Date: eleventh century.

References: Lang 1974, 228 (Kirkwall 2).

Compiled by A Ritchie 2017

Archaeology Notes

HY41SE 8.01 450 111.

Found in late 1970 or early 1971 in a trench being dug by a mechanical digger across the old churchyard of St Ola's, Kirkwall. Now in Tankerness House Museum, Kirkwall.

J T Lang 1974.

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