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Sanday, Lamba Ness
Chapel (Medieval)(Possible), Mound (Period Unknown)
Site Name Sanday, Lamba Ness
Classification Chapel (Medieval)(Possible), Mound (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 3417
Site Number HY63NW 12
NGR HY 61389 37976
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3417
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Cross And Burness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY63NW 12 6138 3797
See also HY63NW 18, HY63NW 19, HY63NW 20.
(HY 6138 3797) Chapel (NR)
(Site of) (NAT).
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).
A heap of stones supposed to be the site of an ancient chapel. (Name Book 1879). RCAHMS describes the site as a very irregular mound, while to Marwick it looked more like an old picts-house. (H Marwick 1923). (See also HY63NW 18).
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928.
The site appears as a sub-rectangular bank of earth and stones measuring c10.0m E to W by c7.0m transversely, denuded with no wall faces evident. The interior is uneven and stony. Two contiguous enclosures, each about 3.0m square, are attached to the N side, and a ruined, turf-covered wall extends in an easterly direction from the NE corner to the shore. The remains are possibly those of a building, still thought locally to be a chapel, but would equally be of a quarried mound, fortuitously forming a rectangular shape.
Local tradition asserts that a man once dug into this structure and exposed a large flat flagstone which concealed a 'pit', which latter was not explored and immediately re-buried.
Visited by OS (RL) 10 July 1970.
Field Visit (August 1979)
As described OS, a very shapeless mound, certainly an
ancient site and main rectangular feature not incompatible with
being a chapel. The two contiguous enclosures on the N side
are not at all clear, but site heavily vegetated. The ruined
turf-covered wall running from NE corner follows a sinuous
course and does not appear to reach cliff edge.
Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Aug 79.
See also: OR 335-8.
Note (1980)
Lambaness, Sanday HY 6138 3797 HY63NW 12
A sub-rectangular earthwork is probably the site of the chapel.
RCAHMS 1980
(Marwick 1923a, 25; RCAHMS 1946, ii, p. 43, No. 180; OR 244)
Field Visit (1999)
An area of disturbed ground close to the coast edge has been alleged to be the site of an ancient chapel. Topographically, the site is visible as two conjoined amorphous mounds, separated by a slightly dished hollow; the whole covering an area some 15m long and 7m wide. It is not improbable that these remains represent a rectangular structure, such as a chapel, but this cannot be conclusively determined on present evidence. According to local tradition, a pit, covered by a large flagstone, was once uncovered and then reburied in this area. Ref.: Marwick, H (1923) 'Antiquarian Notes on Sanday', POAS, 1, (1922-3), 125; Ordnance Survey Orkney Name Book, Book 2, 125; RCAHMS (1946), #180; RCAHMS (1980), #179.
Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, 1999
