St Tredwell’s Chapel

Heritage listing

Date Added 28/12/1961 Last Date Amended 29/09/2014 Type Ecclesiastical: chapel, Prehistoric domestic and defensive: broch; settlement (if not assigned to any more specific type) Local Authority Orkney Islands Parish Papa Westray NGR HY 49648 50900 Coordinates 349648, 1050900 — The monument is a multi-period site comprising the remains of St Tredwell's Chapel atop a settlement mound containing a possible broch. The settlement is likely to date to the early 1st millennium AD, and the visible chapel is probably 12th century (Norse period) in date. The monument survives as a large stony mound with steep sides, measuring approximately 50m NW-SE by 40m transversely and standing up to 4.5m high. On top of the mound on the SE side are the foundations of a Norse chapel. The chapel is of drystone rubble construction, with occasional dressed stones. The N and W walls survive up to 1.3m high and are 0.5m thick. To the N of the chapel are the low foundations of a smaller rectangular structure, which may be the remains of an earlier chapel, possibly of early Christian date. Elsewhere, both on the summit of the mound and around the lower slopes, are traces of earlier walling indicative of a broch and associated settlement remains. Immediately outside the W wall of the chapel, part of a passageway and corbelled chamber can be seen, which was exposed and recorded by Traill in 1879 when he was clearing out the chapel. Around the SW edge of the mound several courses of curving drystone wall are also visible. The monument fully occupies a peninsula (formerly an island) on the E shore of the Loch of St Tredwell in Papa Westray and is around 5m above sea level. It has extensive views in all directions and is highly visible within the landscape. The monument was first scheduled in 1961, but t

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.