Newark

Newark, Deerness, Orkney, Pictish cross-slab fragments

Measurements: H 0.85m, W 0.55m, D 0.09m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: HY 5746 0413

Present location: Orkney Museum, Kirkwall

Evidence for discovery: found face down in the shoreline in 2016, in spoil left after excavations in the 1970s. This was the site of a medieval chapel, together with a cemetery of burials radiocarbon-dated to the eighth to fourteenth centuries.

Present condition: very damaged and weathered.

Description

This was once part of a Pictish cross-slab carved in relief and incision on both broad faces, within a roll-moulded frame. The surviving fragments include a large portion of the central area of the slab, with a short intact section of the right-hand face B. The cross is outlined by roll moulding, as is a central roundel, and the arms have squared terminals, with circular, almost closed, armpits. The top of the shaft survives, narrower than the lower arm of the cross-head. The entire cross appears to have been filled with interlace. There are traces of carving in the spaces either side of the upper arm, and tucked in tightly below the right-hand arm is an S-beast with wide-open jaws, facing the cross.

Face C is very severely damaged apart from one area where the head of a large serpent-like creature may be seen, with a rod or tail between its open jaws.

Date: eighth or ninth century.

References: DES 2016, 135-6.

Desk-based infrmation compiled by A Ritchie 2019

HY50SE 3 5746 0413

Blaeu shows a church or chapel here, labelled the 'Nue Work of Deernes'.

J Blaeu Atlas 1653.

'Chapel, Newark: Local information is to the effect that a chapel and burial ground formerly existed close to the beach at the farm of Newark. Some confirmation of the tradition was observed in the banks along the shore, where human bones are constantly being exposed. As yet, however, no traces of a building have emerged.'

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1930.

At HY 5746 0413 there are traces of two sections of a dry stone wall protruding from the cliff face, which according to Mr Delday of Newark, Deerness are the remains of a chapel, now almost completely lost due to coastal erosion.

Human bones were strewn along the cliff face in the vicinity of the chapel remains, suggesting an associated graveyard.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (NKB), 25 August 1964.

(HY 5746 0413) Chapel (NR) (site of)

OS 1:10,000 map (1971).

Norse burials associated with a small church of probable 10th century date on the evidence of coins below the flooring. Two 'mycaform structures' - i.e. ? souterrains - underlie the burials and were excavated by Brothwell who recovered the plan and defined the construction but could come to no conclusion regarding date, use etc. He suggests possible ritual significance.

D Brothwell 1977; RCAHMS 1988.

The farm steading at Newark stands atop a broadly rounded mound covering approximately 1 ha and some 2m high above general ground level. Erosion at the seaward side of this and extending 100m eastward has exposed complex settlement remains and the graveyard associated with a medieval chapel. Deposits are some 1.3m thick above a layer of glacial clay. The chapel was excavated by Dr D Brothwell between 1969 and 1972 in order to obtain a sequence of Norse skeletons, and it is reported that a good series of these was obtained; coin evidence is said to have provided a tenth-century date for the chapel. The remains of two earth-houses were discovered lower down, and one of these, a curved chamber, which was aligned E-W and measured some 10m in length, has been published. On the site of the chapel a laird's house of the sixteenth or seventeenth century was built; some dressed stones in the buildings at Newark steading must have come from this. The chapel and surrounding buildings were left open after excavation, exacerbating the erosion problem.

Burials continue to be exposed from time to time in the coastal section; two of these both aligned approximately E-W and underlying medieval structures, were recorded in 1985.

RCAHMS 1946; D Brothwell 1977; K A Steedman 1980; RCAHMS 1987, visited July 1985.

HY 5747 0413 A 116m length of the eroded section below the putative chapel and medieval settlement at Newark (NMRS HY50SE 3) was recorded. The surface remains visible on the site of the 1969-72 excavations were also surveyed.

A total of eight burials were exposed in the sea bank: the excavation and removal of all visible human remains led to the discovery of three further burials; the majority were aligned NW-SE. All appear to have been shroud burials. No trace of coffin fittings was evident. A single grave appears to have been constructed with stone sides and cover, although only the head end was visible in section. All except one burial were supine, one being prone. Where present, the hands were found to have been crossed over the pelvic area.

The principal structures still visible at the site have been previously interpreted as a medieval chapel and the remains of the 'New Work', a late 16th-century manor house. The surveyed extent of the 'New Work' appears to agree well with the map evidence of a previously unreported 1846 estate plan. The excavated fragment presumably formed part of the S range of that structure. Although no firm conclusions can be proposed without reference to the results of the 1969-72 excavations, this present survey suggests that the putative chapel, adjacent to the NW, if earlier than the 'New Work', may represent the remains of an earlier range of buildings on the same site.

A full report has been lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland.

C Lowe 2000.