difference in the thickness of the walls makes it possible that it has
been altered since its first erection. Planned 1870.
CHURCH AT SWENDRO, ROUSAY.
This is in a graveyard, close to the west shore of Rousay, about a mile
north of Westness. It consists of a long parallelogram, and, but for a
stoup near the door, and apparently an ambry near the east end, might be
taken for a post-Reformation building. It has been used till within
memory. It stands about east and west. (Fig. 76.) It is 52 feet 11
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--Chapel near Westness, Rousay. Plan and
Elevation.]
inches east and west by 14 feet 5 inches north and south inside; and the
walls are 2 feet 6 inches on north and south, 2 feet 11 inches on east,
and 3 feet 8 inches on the west. It is now roofless, and in some parts
broken. From the floor to the top of side walls is 9 feet 10 inches.
There is one doorway near the west end of south wall. (See Fig. 76.)
This is flat headed and rebated, measuring 3 feet 4 inches clear width.
To the west of this doorway and low down is a window 2 feet 11 inches by
1 foot 4 inches clear, flat headed, and splayed inwards and outwards.
Between the window and the doorway (inside) is a recess, probably for
holy water. To the east of the doorway is a window 3 feet 3½ inches by 1
foot 4 inches, flat headed, and splayed as before. The head is nearly as
high as the eaves. Farther east is another similar window. About midway
along the north wall is a window 2 feet 1½ inch by 1 foot, clear
opening, flat headed, and splayed as before. The head is nearly as high
as the eaves. In the east end (Fig. 77) is a window, of which the sill
is nearly as high as the eaves, 4 feet by 1 foot 2 inches, clear
opening, with flat head, and splays in and out; under this window, and
across the end inside, is a sort of shelf at the height of the top of
the altar. In the west end is a
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--Chapel near Westness, Ronsay. Sections and
Elevation.]
window above the level of the eaves, 3 feet 5 inches by 1 foot 4 inches.
There is a seat inside, along the west end and part of the north side.
The east and west gables are in steps, which remain tolerably entire.
The floor of the church is gone. In the yard are numerous rough
tombstones, and a few more modern. Outside the north-west corner of the
yard is the foundation of a small, strong, rectangular building, which
has more the appearance of a fort than a church; but close to it, as is
stated, were found some carved stones of the red sandstone, now at
Westness, one of which appears to be the cap of an elaborate church
doorway, with three shafts on each side. Planned 1870.
ST. OLA, KIRKWALL.
This church stands in Bridge Street Lane, and is now a carpenter’s shop
and warehouse, the property of Mrs. John Reid. It formerly was enclosed
in “a close” or court, and was once converted into a “poorhouse,” from
which the close was called “Poorhouse Close.” It has been so much
mutilated in its several conversions that little can be stated of its
original style and arrangement.
It stands about west by south and east by north. It consists of one
parallelogram, 35 feet by 18 feet inside. (Fig. 78.) The south side
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--St. Ola, Kirkwall. Plan.]
abuts on the lane, and a house is attached to the west end, from which
house into the chapel a modern doorway has been cut.
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--St. Ola, Kirkwall. Details.]
The south wall is 2 feet 11 inches thick, the west 3 feet 6 inches.
The original entrance is on the south, 17 feet from the exterior west
angle. (Fig. 79.) It is 3 feet 5 inches wide, with a semicircular head
and continuous mouldings of a hollow, ornamented with four-leaved
flowers and a filleted roll, like many of the mouldings in the
cathedral, except as to the flowers. When the street was paved about
thirty years ago the ground was raised, the jambs were covered up 9
inches, two stones were inserted just below the impost and the arch
raised. What the height of the side walls was is not now evident. They
are now about 20 feet above the original floor at the entrance. Probably
the ridge was about 24 feet high.
The east end has no trace of an original window, but a modern one has
been inserted. In the south wall near the east angle is a modern window,
but probably in the place of an original one. The other original windows
cannot be traced. Probably there was a step at 10 feet or 11 feet from
the east end, and perhaps a screen. A few feet east of the entrance
inside was a stoup or piscina (see Fig. 79). In the north wall near the
east angle remains an ambry (see Fig. 79) 1 foot 4¾ inches wide, 2 feet
1 inch high, and 1 foot 3½ inches recessed. The head is an ogee arch
under a hood moulding, and it is flanked by buttresses with finials. The
bottom of this ambry is 5 feet 1 inch above what appears to have been
the original level of the floor. The moulding of this resembles that of
the entrance, except in having no flowers.
In the east wall near the south angle is a smaller ambry, also ogee
headed and less ornate, the bottom of which is 2 feet 6 inches above the
floor. The use of the ogee is very rare in Scotland. The only curves of
that kind in St. Magnus are in fragments of Bishop Tulloch’s tomb.
South of the chapel in what is now the lane were found, in forming the
lane, gravestones and human bones. Close by the chapel was lying, in
1855, a stone, having on it, sculptured in relief, apparently a shield,
under a mitre, but too much defaced to be recognised, and below the
shield, “Robertvs ...,” and a date or letters illegible. Bishop Robert
Reid held the see from 1540 to the Reformation; and as the mouldings
(especially the four-leaved flower and the ogee arch) point to the
fifteenth century, perhaps the chapel may be a late example of the
style, and be assigned to him. His coat of arms is a stag’s head
cabossed.
The parish in which the town of Kirkwall is situated is that of St. Ola,
and it is certain that in this part of the town was the parish church,
dedicated to the great warrior saint of Norway--St. Olaf.
The fact of burials having been made close to this building makes it
probable that this was the parish church; not a chapel of ease or of
private endowment. Of course, this building was not the _first_ parish
church, though it may have occupied the site of the first, and probably
did so.
It was probably after the constitution of Kirkwall as a royal burgh,
about 1470, that the cathedral became practically the parish church, and
St. Ola became merged in Kirkwall. The name Kirkwall (Church-bay), being
wholly Norse, is some evidence that the name was caused by a Norse, not
a Culdee, church. The situation could hardly fail to induce settlement
of the Norsemen there. In the name Egilsey we have inference of a
different origin, as will be hereafter mentioned. But supposing that the
conjecture as to the name of Kirkwall is correct, it does not prove that
there was not a Culdee church there.[124] Planned 1855.
_Note by Geo. Petrie, Kirkwall, Corr. Mem. Soc. Antiq. Scot._
According to Jo. Ben, whose description of Orkney is dated in 1529, St.
Ola’s Church was reduced to ashes by the English, probably during one of
their many raids on the islands about that time. One of the raids was on
13th August 1502. As apparently corroborative of Sir Henry Dryden’s
conjecture, that St. Ola’s Church was the parish church before the
cathedral was so styled, an old charter in my possession proves that not
only was the church known as St. Ola’s Kirk, but it had “St. Olaf’s
Kirkyard,” “St. Olaf’s Burn,” and “St. Olaf’s Brig” in its vicinity. I
think the fair inference from this is, that a church built here during
the early part of the Norsemen’s possession of the islands was dedicated
with its “kirkyard” to St. Olaf. The name soon extended to the
neighbouring small stream or burn, and the “brig” by which it was
crossed; and in the course of time embraced a considerable portion of
the surrounding country. It is very probable that St. Ola’s Kirk
occupied the same site on which stood the older building, from which the
town was named by the Norsemen Kirkevaag (Kirk-bay), which was anciently
pronounced “Kirkwaw,” and appears in that form in some old documents in
my possession.
The fact that St. Ola’s Church had been destroyed in the beginning of
the sixteenth century renders it almost certain that Sir Henry Dryden
must be correct in attributing the erection of the church, of which
there are considerable remains, to Bishop Robert Reid, as the style of
architecture, as shown by Sir Henry, is in keeping with the period to
which he supposes the building to belong.
The charter I have referred to is dated at “Kirkwall in Orknay ye last
of July” 1580, and granted by “John Tailyor and Henrie Tailyor brether
germane, and airis to our umqle fayir (father) Andro Tailyor, to our
weil-be-louit friend Magnus Paplay” of “All and Haill ane hall, ane
seller, ane chalm. yr.aboue wyt. yaird and pt.nents yr.to p.tene.g
quhatsomeuir lyand adjacent to Sanct Olaiffis brig, Kirk and Kirkyaird
of the samy. having on the Est pt. y.roff the housses p.tene.g to
Symound Beatoun; on the West pt. Sanct Olaiffis Kirk and yaird of the
samy.; on the South pt. the housses p.tene.g to Johnne Vysshart and Sant
Olaffis burne yr. betuixt and to ye North pt. Sanct Katereins quoyis.”
THE FOLLOWING CHURCHES ARE OF THE TYPE CONTAINING CHANCEL AND NAVE.
CHURCH ON THE ISLAND OF WYRE.
This stands on a flat piece of ground about the middle of the island, in
a walled burial-ground, still used. The chapel has no roof, and is much
filled up with rubbish. Large parts of the south wall have tumbled, as
well as smaller portions of other walls. (Fig. 80.)
It is built of grey whinstone, without any freestone dressings. The
stones average about 1 foot 6 inches long by about 5 inches thick. It
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--Church, Wyre, Orkney. From South-West.]
consists of chancel and nave, with a door at west end--all built at the
same time. (Fig. 81.) The extreme exterior length is 35 feet 10 inches,
and width 18 feet 4 inches. It stands west by south and east by north.
The nave is 19 feet 2 inches by 12 feet 10 inches inside.
The west entrance is 2 feet 6 inches wide at bottom, with semicircular
head, the feet of which are set back at the impost 2½ inches on each
side. (Fig. 82.) This mode of putting the arch on was probably done to
give a support to the centre on which the arch was built. The jambs are
parallel, 3 feet 2 inches thick, and have no rebate for a door, nor any
traces of there having been one.[125] There is no cap. The impost is 4
feet 11 inches above original stone sill. The whole interior is from 1
foot 6 inches to 2 feet deep in rubbish.
The west wall is 3 feet 2 inches thick, the north and south about 3
feet.
There are no windows on the north or west of the nave. There are two on
the south side, but only one of these appears original. This has a
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--Church, Wyre, Orkney. Plan and North and South
Elevations.]
clear opening of 1 foot 10 inches by 8 inches, with a flat head. The
jambs splay inward to 2 feet 3 inches in width. The outer edges are
broken, so that it is uncertain whether it had an external chamfer.
The upper part of the side walls is in many places destroyed, but as far
as can be now ascertained, the top of the nave walls was 11 feet 5
inches above the sill of west door. The chancel walls were only 4 or 5
inches lower.
The upper part of all the gables is gone.
The chancel arch is exactly like the west entrance in every way. The
jambs are 3 feet thick. A springer of the gable-coping remains at the
north-east angle, 1 foot wide, 7 or 8 inches thick, and of 1 foot
projection. In 1852 the springer at the south-west angle was existing.
The chancel is 7 feet 10 inches by 7 feet 2 inches inside.
There is one window on the south which appears to have been round
headed, and 2 feet 7 inches by 11 inches. The jambs splay inward to
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--Church, Wyre, Orkney. Sections and East and
West Elevations.]
2 feet 11 inches in width. The outer edges are broken, but there seems
to have been an external splay. There is no ambry, and no trace of altar
or altar place.
The springers of the gable-coping remain at the south-east and
north-east angles. These are 1 foot wide and about 8 inches thick, and
project 1 foot.
The roofs of nave and chancel were either of tie-beam construction or of
rafters coupled half-way up, and covered with stone slates.
My conjectural restoration makes the ridge of the nave roof 19 feet
above the sill of the west entrance. This chapel closely resembles in
size and form the chapel at Lybster, in Caithness, described farther on
in this work (p. 162). Probably Wyre Chapel is of the twelfth or
thirteenth century, but the characteristics are not decisive enough to
approximate more closely to its date. It is called “Cubberow” Chapel,
from its vicinity to Cubberow Castle.
The exterior length of the nave is equal to the diagonal of the square
of its exterior width. The chancel is nearly square.
CHURCH ON THE ISLAND OF ENHALLOW.
This church, till lately, was unknown for many years, having been
converted long ago into a cottage. On the small island Enhallow (the
Holy Island), on the south-west slope of it, and about 200 yards from
the shore, is a cluster of four cottages, in which four families lived.
In 18--fever broke out among them, and the owner, Mr. Balfour, took the
whole
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. Plan.]
off the island, and pulled the roofs off the cottages. In this clearance
the church was discovered. Having been altered and added to in its
church time, and having since been altered and added to in its domestic
time, its history is very puzzling.
It is of grey whinstones, mostly from 1 foot to 2 feet long (average 1
foot 6 inches), and 6 inches to 2 inches thick. The exterior length is
52 feet 8 inches, and the extreme width 23 feet 4 inches. It stands
nearly exactly east and west. (Fig. 83.) The nave is 20 feet 7 inches by
12 feet inside. On the west of this, and entered through a round-headed
arch, 4 feet 3 inches wide, with parallel jambs 2 feet 8 inches thick,
is a building 7 feet 9 inches and 7 feet 5 inches inside, with walls 2
feet 7 inches thick, without any doorway to the outside, and with only
one small square window to the south, perhaps not original. It is in the
position of a tower, but it is not likely that a tower of that size
would have been added to so small a church, and the walls are too thin.
The size and character of the arch into it (Fig. 84) are against the
notion that it was a
[Illustration: FIG. 84.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. Sections and East
Elevation.]
priest’s room, supposing the room to be cotemporary with the arch. So
little remains of the side walls that with regard to the windows and
roof and height we are left to conjecture. There is no appearance of its
having been higher than the nave. It most resembles a chancel on the
west, and there is in Uyea, Shetland, a chapel with an adjunct,
apparently original, in that position. If we may suppose that the west
arch was the _original_ entrance to the church, and that the south
doorway was of later date, then this building may have been a sacristy,
cotemporary with the south doorway. The floor of the late cottage was
about 1 foot 3 inches above what appears to have been the floor of the
west arch, which is 5 feet 5 inches below the top of cap. The north wall
is 2 feet 10 inches thick, and the south wall 2 feet 6 inches. They are
about 10 feet 6 inches or 11 feet above the supposed sill of the west
arch.
The south doorway is of ecclesiastical date, even if the jambs are not
original. The north doorway is perhaps domestic, though resembling that
on south. They have the usual rebate and wooden frames fixed in them,
and have lately been the doors of the cottage.
The heads are square. (Fig. 85.) Probably at the beginning of the
domestic period the south one was altered in some degree, and the north
one made or altered. If the building at the west end was the original
chancel, these entrances are not cotemporary with _that_, being in wrong
position for that arrangement.
[Illustration: FIG. 85.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. North and South
Elevations.]
It is not certain whether the present chancel on the east is cotemporary
with the nave, or whether there was an earlier one or none; but the
present chancel arch is clearly an addition of a much later date than
the nave. (See Fig. 84.) It is 4 feet 1 inch wide, pointed, has red
freestone caps chamfered, and the mark of insertion is clear on the
north side of it. It will be seen that the nave is 11 feet 3 inches wide
at west end, and 12 feet at east, and in the south-east corner there is
a slight projection and roughness. This may be the junction of a former
south wall of the nave which got out of repair, or it may be the
junction of the jamb of the chancel arch. When the chapel came to be
used for a cottage it was divided into two stories. (Fig. 86.)
On the north (Fig. 87) is one window, square headed, 2 feet by 1 foot 2
inches clear, with splayed jambs, but without freestone dressings or
external chamfer, and in north-east corner is an ambry 3 feet 9 inches
by 3 feet 9 inches, and 1 foot 6 inches recess. The bottom is 3 feet 6
inches above the original floor. The position is peculiar.
[Illustration: FIG. 86.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. Sections.]
[Illustration: FIG. 87.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. Sections.]
On the south is a window like that on the north, and three small
ambries, perhaps one or all domestic.
The windows and doors on the north side of the nave and chancel are
higher than on south side, owing to the slope of the ground.
The chancel is 12 feet 8 inches by 8 feet 9 inches inside, set out
symmetrically with the nave. (See Fig. 83.) When it was made domestic a
doorway was cut in the north wall. For some reason the upper part of the
south wall was pulled down, and a casing put _outside_ the lower part. A
fireplace and chimney were made in the east wall, and a new face put
outside the whole east end, including the added piece on the south, for
no break or juncture is visible outside the east end. On the north is
one window 2 feet by 1 foot clear, with splayed jambs, but no freestone
dressings, and no external chamfer.[126] To the east of it is a small
ambry. The window and ambry on the north are on a higher level than on
the south.
When the casing was added on the south, the window was shifted out, or a
lintel put in the added piece. Red freestone quoins and two sills (or
possibly one, a square head) are lying near, and the jambs of the south
window are much broken. Probably this sill, jamb stones, and head formed
the south window, and are cotemporary with the chancel arch, having,
perhaps, supplanted a window like that on the north.
Outside the south door of nave is a square addition, measuring 8 feet 1
inch by 7 feet 7 inches inside, now only 6 feet high, containing a
radiating stair of five freestone steps. (See Fig. 83.) The west wall of
it is 3 feet, and the south and east 2 feet 3 inches. There is no
evidence of what this was, or led to, but the building certainly is
ecclesiastical by the character of the work. The entrance to it from
outside is on the east. Perhaps the stair led to a priest’s room or
parvise over the porch, which, however, must have been very small; or it
led to a bell turret. There are several jamb stones of red freestone
belonging to a doorway lying about, and one (apparently in its proper
position) is in the jamb of the outer entrance of this porch. (Fig. 88.)
This makes it probable that this building is cotemporary with chancel
arch. The red freestone window jambs, above mentioned, may have come out
of this porch. Whatever the upper part of this porch was, the roof must
have been higher than the eaves of the nave.
Plaster, apparently ancient, remains on the south wall of chancel lower
part--on jambs of north window of chancel on east side of the chancel
arch in the ambry on north side of the nave.
The roof was either of tie-beam arrangement, or of rafters coupled
half-way up and covered with stone slates, or “divots.” The ridge of the
nave roof was about 18 feet above sill of west arch.
The general history may be thus conjectured. In the eleventh or twelfth
century a chapel was built of nave and chancel at the east end of the
nave, and an entrance in the west end of the nave. In the fourteenth
[Illustration: FIG. 88.--Church, Enhallow, Orkney. Details.]
century a new chancel arch was inserted, north and south doorways made,
sacristy built at the west end, and a porch and parvise made outside the
south doorway. After it became domestic the changes before described
were made in the chancel. At a later date other additions were made.
(Fig. 89.)
If we suppose that the west building is the original _chancel_, the
original _entrance_ was in the place now occupied by the chancel arch.
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--Enhallow. View.]
The proportion of the inside of the nave is that of the “vesica
piscis”--the width to the length as the base of an equilateral triangle
to the length of two such triangles on opposite sides of that base, and
the internal length of the chancel is equal to the diagonal of the
square of the internal width.
Barry mentions a tradition that neither rats, mice, nor cats will live
on the island, which tradition agrees with the name of the island.
CHAPEL AT LINTON, IN SHAPINSAY.
This chapel is near the shore at the south-east part of the island. It
consists of nave and chancel, and stands nearly exactly east and west.
(Fig. 90.) The extreme length is 35 feet 9 inches, and the width 19 feet
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--Linton Chapel. Plan and Elevations.]
5 inches. About 7 feet in height of the east end of the nave, including
the arch into the chancel (Fig. 91), remains; but of the rest only
about 2 feet and 3 feet remain. It is built of whinstone without any
freestone dressings.
The nave is 18 feet by 13 feet 7 inches inside. The walls are 3 feet
thick.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Linton Chapel. View.]
The entrance is in the south wall near the west angle, differing in this
point from most of the early chapels, and is 2 feet 8 inches wide with
parallel unrebated jambs.[127] The upper part of the entrance is gone,
but probably it was a semicircular arch. (Fig. 92.) Nothing can be
stated
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--Linton Chapel. Section and Elevations.]
of the windows. The chancel arch (see Fig. 92) is semicircular, of rough
stone, 3 feet wide, with plain parallel jambs, and the arch is set back
on the jambs at the impost, which is about 5 feet 6 inches high from the
supposed floor of the nave. The inside is much filled with rubbish. It
is uncertain whether there was a step at the chancel arch. The chancel
is 7 feet 6 inches by 7 feet inside, narrower than the nave by the
thickness of the walls. The north and south walls are 2 feet 10 inches
thick, and the east wall 3 feet 4 inches. Only about 2 feet in height of
the east wall remains, though within the memory of man the east gable
was standing and a cross on it.
Nothing can be stated of the windows. The exterior length of the nave
and the interior width are in the proportion of the vesica piscis. The
chancel is nearly square.
This chapel bears close resemblance in form and size to Wyre Chapel, and
is probably about the same date. It is supposed by the owner that Linton
Farm formed part of St. Catherine’s lands, and that this chapel was
dedicated to that Saint.
CHAPEL IN WESTRAY.
This is in the “West Graveyard,” which is still used, though the chapel
has been for many years a ruin. It consists of nave and chancel, and is
built of the schist of the locality. It stands east and west, within two
degrees. (Fig. 93.)
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--Chapel in Westray. Plan and South Elevations.]
The nave originally measured 19 feet east and west by 13 feet 4 inches
north and south inside, but was elongated long subsequently to its
erection, so that latterly it was 46 feet 7 inches by 13 feet 4 inches
inside. The original length is shown by a break in the south wall at 24
feet 7 inches from the south-east angle of the nave, and by the position
of the
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--Chapel in Westray. Sections.]