Reafirth Chapel

Heritage listing

Date Added 19/02/1954 Last Date Amended 17/08/2012 Type Ecclesiastical: burial avile/vault; burial ground, cemetery, graveyard; chapel Local Authority Shetland Islands Parish Yell NGR HU 51455 90945 Coordinates 451455, 1190945 — The monument comprises the remains of a small chapel and burial ground, together with two burial aisles that lie immediately north of the chapel. Two tombstones in the burial aisles suggest that the aisles were built during the 1690s and that the chapel was an earlier structure. The visible remains of the chapel comprise parts of the rubble-built north and west walls. The north wall was extensively repaired when the burial aisles were built to the north, but the west wall preserves the semi-circular arch of the west doorway. The lower part of the doorway is buried below ground level and it is probable that other remains of the chapel also survive as buried archaeological features. Overall, the building probably measures about 15m E-W by 7m transversely. Low banks suggest the original boundaries of the burial ground, indicating that it covered an area measuring 28m N-S by 26m transversely, with the chapel standing just north of the centre. The site lies immediately above the beach on the southwest shore of Mid Yell Voe, less than 10m above sea level. The monument was first scheduled in 1954, but the documentation does not meet modern standards: the present rescheduling rectifies this. The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. On the south and east sides, the scheduled area extends up to but excludes the modern boundary wall of the cemetery. The

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.