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.])
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
Fig. 94.—Chapel in Westray. Sections.
original doorway, which at the elongation was stopped up. There is also a tradition that the church was enlarged, and when certain people within memory were pulling it down, an old inhabitant begged them not to “pull down the Danes’ work,” alluding to the chancel and eastern part of the nave. Of the elongation little more than the foundations remain; but it is evident that there was not a door in the west end or north side, so that it must have been somewhere in the south wall, between the old blocked doorway and the south-west angle. The side walls are 3 feet thick. Of the old part of the south wall, fortunately, we have considerable part. (See [Fig. 93.]) The old doorway is nearly complete. It had plain parallel jambs, without rebate, 2 feet 4 inches apart, a plain projecting abacus, and a semicircular head set back at the impost. To the east of that is a window entire. It has a semicircular head, and measures 2 feet 7 inches high by 11½ inches clear opening, with jambs splayed to the width of 1 foot 7½ inches.
The chancel arch remains entire. ([Fig. 94.]) It has plain angular jambs 4 feet apart, a plain abacus of schist and a semicircular head. The impost is 5 feet 7 inches above what appears to be the old floor. ([Fig. 95.]) The wall is 2 feet 9 inches thick. The chancel is 9 feet 1 inch east and west by 6 feet 8 inches north and south inside. It had a
Fig. 95.—Chapel in Westray. View from North-West.
cylindrical vault, of which part remains. ([Fig. 96.]) It springs from the level of the impost of the chancel arch, and is slightly set back at the impost, as many of the old arches were, to give support to the centering.
Fig. 96.—Chapel in Westray. View from South-East.
It had one window, which was in the east end, which is now gone; but within a few years the east gable was existing. According to an old inhabitant the east window was like the south one in the nave. The vault is 1 foot 3 inches thick.
In the graveyard is lying what appears to be the saddlestone of one of the gables, of the red sandstone of Eday.
This chapel probably is of the twelfth century, and possibly of the thirteenth. Planned 1870.