Swona, St Peter's Chapel

Excerpt from OS Name Book (Orkney 20, 291):

The site of an ancient Romish chapel situated on the island of Swona about 5 chains west from The Haven. The period at which the chapel was first instituted cannot be ascertained but it is believed to have been at least as early as the latter part of the 14th century.

Sources:

Mr James Thomson, West Quoys

William Nicolson, tenant, Swona

Mr W B Swanson, St Margaret's Hope

Capt. John Gray of Roeberry

Peterkin's Rentals of Orkney

Recordings relating to the Bishopric of Orkney 1590

ND38NE 1 3911 8510.

(ND 3911 8510) St. Peter's Chapel (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1900)

Information from OS (WDJ) 25 March 1971.

The site of "St. Peter's Chapel" is confirmed by a turf-covered mound, c.0.4m high, with one or two stones of the S wall visible. No true dimensions can be obtained, but the chapel appears to have measured about 6.5m E-W by 4.0m N-S.

There is no trace of a graveyard wall, nor of grave markers, but it is said that burials have been made in the vicinity within living memory (Mr J Rosie, Swona).

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (IMT) 30 April 1973.

A grass-grown stony mound, probably representing the remains of St Peter’s Chapel, and the fragmentary remains of an enclosure are situated on the east side of a much larger, probably prehistoric, settlement mound (ND38NE 6) now also surmounted by a farmsteading (see ND38SE 15). The mound measures about 6.5m from E to W by 3.5m transversely and 0.5m in height. Immediately to the east and south there are the remains of a bank 1.2m in thickness and 0.2m in height which may be part of a related enclosure. Two possible fonts have been located; the first about 85m to the SSE (at ND 3916 8496); the second about 360m to the SW (at ND 3892 8474).

The site of St Peter’s Chapel is depicted at this location on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Orkney 1882, Sheet CXXVI.1) and described at the time as ‘the site of an ancient Romish chapel situated on the island of Swona about 5 chains west from The Haven. The period at which the chapel was first instituted cannot be ascertained but it is believed to have been at least as early as the latter part of the 14th century’ (OS Name Book 20, 291). The remains were described by the OS in 1973 but mistakenly located 50m to the NNW (OS record card), and a recent discussion situates them to the W of the farmstead (Findlay 2010). The current OS Mastermap depicts an unroofed building at this location.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AM) 22 August 2014.