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Yell, Papil

Burial Ground (Early Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval), Human Remains(S) (Period Unknown), Midden (Prehistoric)

Site Name Yell, Papil

Classification Burial Ground (Early Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval), Human Remains(S) (Period Unknown), Midden (Prehistoric)

Alternative Name(s) Papil Bay; North Yell

Canmore ID 78

Site Number HP50SW 4

NGR HP 5424 0404

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/78

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

  • Council Shetland Islands
  • Parish Yell
  • Former Region Shetland Islands Area
  • Former District Shetland
  • Former County Shetland

Archaeology Notes

HP50SW 4 5424 0404.

(HP 5426 0407) Chapel and Burial Ground (NR) (Site of).

OS 6" map, Shetland, 2nd ed., (1900).

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB, 1878) records that traditionally a chapel of considerable dimensions stood here, but now no trace remains; and that great quantitites of human remains from the graveyard have been found from time to time (?the kitchen midden described above).

Name Book 1878.

At Papil (a significant name suggesting the site of an early monastic establishment) there is the site of a chapel dedicated to St Ninian (Irvine nd.).

Adjoining the chapel site a kitchen midden has been exposed by sea erosion; and there are also indications of a ruined building, too masked by vegetation and blown sand to allow accurate identification.

J T Irvine nd.; RCAHMS 1946, visited 1931.

A building in the corner of a triangular enclosure, the traditional side of the chapel, 'but could be anything'. It is set on a slight natural (?) ridge. The building measures 28ft N-S by 17ft E-W with turf-covered walls c.1ft high (the E wall is merely footings): the enclosure walls are turf-covered ridges 1ft to 18ins high, with much stone visible on the E side.

Information contained in letter and plan from A MacDonald to OS 25 August 1969.

A building and enclosure generally as described and planned by MacDonald. Although this building cannot be identified as a chapel from ground observation, the tradition, the name Papil, and the finding of human bones suggests there was a chapel somewhere in the vicinity. The kitchen midden, comprising limpet shells and animal bones, as well as traces of crude walling, is visible in the adjacent cliff edge at a lower level indicating an earlier occupation site of unknown period. Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB) 11 May 1969.

Chapel [NR] (site of ) [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1973.

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