South Ronaldsay, Hoxa, St Colm's Chapel
Chapel (Period Unassigned), Comb (Bone)(Period Unassigned)
Site Name South Ronaldsay, Hoxa, St Colm's Chapel
Classification Chapel (Period Unassigned), Comb (Bone)(Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 9634
Site Number ND49SW 8
NGR ND 4222 9369
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9634
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish South Ronaldsay
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
ND49SW 8 4222 9369
(ND 4222 9369) St Colm's Chapel (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map (1900)
The Orcadian and The Orkney Herald describe the excavation of this site in 1871.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Said to have stood on a small knoll and have been one of seven pre-Reformation chapels, referred to in 'Imperial Gazetter of Scotland', as having once existed on this island. According to an old History of Orkney it was originally established by a disciple of St Columba named Cormac who arrived from Iona about the beginning of the 7th century. Name Book 1879
This building which has entirely disappeared, stood on the 'Kirkie Brae'. An excavation carried out by Petrie in 1871 produced a piece of a bone comb, a bone pin, a hammer-stone and several pieces of red and yellow pigment, suggesting that it was probably erected on the site of an earlier settlement.
RCAHMS 1946, visited 1929
The 'Kirkie Brae' (Mr Scott, Roeberry Farm, S Ronaldsay) is a natural grass-covered sandhill measuring about 17.0m NW-SE by about 13.0m, and 2.5m maximum height. The top has been trenched, evidently for a wartime machine gun-post, revealing the sandy content. Except for a length of the outer face of a drystone wall, (about 1.0m long and 0.3m high on the top of the NE side), uncertainly of the chapel, and a modern wall built around the base in the N and E, there is no trace of any building.
Site surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (ISS) 26 April 1973.
Field Visit (August 1997)
This chapel is said to have stood on a small knoll, known as Kirkie Brae. It is recorded as one of the seven pre-Reformation chapels said to have existed on South Ronaldsay. An old History of Orkney tells that the chapel was founded by Cormac, a disciple of St. Columba, who arrived from Iona around the beginning of the 7th C (OS Name Book 20, 83). Petrie carried out investigations in the area in 1871 and found several artefacts of probable Iron Age date, indicating that the site may have been previously settled. The top of the hill has been disturbed, apparently for use as a wartime machine-gun position. Part of a drystone wall and a modern wall at the base are now visible and there is no trace of any remains which could confidently be ascribed to either the chapel or the settlement.
Moore and Wilson, 1997
Coastal Zone Assessment Survey
