CHURCH ON EGILSEY.
The island on which this church stands is about three miles north and south and one mile east and west. The church is on the west side of it near the Howa Sound, which separates Egilsey from Rousay, and is a conspicuous object from all sides, as the island has no prominent points, and the church is on the highest ground.
The flood tide runs from north-west to south-east. There is a landing-place at the south point and on west side, but not at north point. The name Egilsey or Egilshay is derived from an ancient form of the Gaelic word eaglais, a church (derived from ecclesia), with the Norse addition of ey, an island.
Fig. 97.—Church on Egilsey. Ground Plan.
Professor Munch infers that the Norsemen founded a church here, and called the island after it; and if this is the case, the date of the erection of the church is put very far back, unless we suppose this to be a second church. It was dedicated to St. Magnus; but this might be a second dedication, and probably was so. At the end of this article are further remarks on this point. The church is complete, except the roofs and the upper part of the tower, and was used up to about 18—as the place of worship. It consists of a chancel nave and tower at the west end of the nave, and stands nearly exactly east and west. ([Fig. 97.])
The only alterations which appear to have been made in the building are two or three windows. The ground plan shows a proportion which, if not intentional, is singular. If four circles of the exterior diameter of the tower are laid down in a line, and the first occupied by the tower, the second and third fill the inside of the nave, and the fourth takes in the chancel, including the side walls, but excluding the east wall. The whole is of grey whinstone, without any freestone dressings, and has become very picturesque in colour, from the rich grey lichen on some parts and bright yellow lichen on others.
The masonry is chiefly in courses, but the size of the stones very irregular, some being as large as 4 feet long and 1 foot 6 inches deep. The interstices are filled with very small stones. Here and there irregular blocks are inserted.
The whole is built with mortar.
The extreme length is 62 feet 9 inches, and the extreme width is 21 feet 7 inches.
The nave is 29 feet 9 inches by 15 feet 6 inches inside. The north and south walls are 3 feet thick. On the north and south, opposite each other, are two doorways 2 feet 6 inches wide. These have round arched
Fig. 98.—Church on Egilsey. Section from West to East.
heads and rebated jambs without chamfers. On the north side of the nave is a window 3 feet 3 inches high and 8½ inches wide at the outside of the wall with semicircular head. (Figs. 98-100.) The jambs are splayed inwards to 2 feet 9 inches wide. On the south is a similar window. It is to be observed that these windows have no external chamfer—that is, the outer edges of the jambs are acute angles. This peculiarity is found in early Irish churches.[128] They were not originally glazed, but probably had a frame fitted into them, when required, covered with parchment. On this south side are two windows, not original—one close to the east wall and low down, the other high up over the south doorway, (see [Fig. 102].)
The side walls are about 15 feet 4 inches high from the floor, equal to the internal width of the nave.
On the west of the nave is the tower, which is circular, 14 feet 10½ inches diameter externally, and 7 feet 8 inches diameter internally. An arch 2 feet 5 inches wide leads from the nave into it. ([Fig. 101.]) The jambs are 3 feet 7 inches thick, and the head is semicircular. The tower appears to have been built with the nave, although the stones in the tower are on the average smaller than those in the nave, which difference may be accounted for by the unfitness of large stones, when not freestone, for circular work.
Fig. 99.—Church on Egilsey. Section from East to West.
The tower seems to have contained four chambers, including the one on the ground.
Above the tower arch, at 16 feet 3 inches from the floor of the nave, but under the nave roof, is an arched opening in the tower 5 feet 4 inches high and 2 feet 3 inches wide. A similar opening is found in many early churches in England, the use of which is not ascertained.
Arches in the same position are in St. Magnus.
The nave roof appears to have been of a “square pitch”—that is, the angle at the apex is about a right angle. Of the construction of the roof we know nothing, except that it was not vaulted.
Probably all the rafters were framed in couples, and the covering formed of coarse slates.
Each end of the roof is terminated by a wall 1 foot 2 inches wide, formed of corby-steps, standing up above the roof as usual. The ridge of the roof was about 25 feet above the floor. Above the roof of the nave in the east side of the tower is an arched opening 4 feet 1 inch high and 1 foot 9 inches wide. At about 7 feet above this is a smaller opening in the east side, and similar ones in the three other sides of this story. The top of the tower is now about 11 feet wide, and about 48 feet from the floor of the nave. It is stated that about 15 feet was taken off the top. Probably it was surmounted by a conical roof.
Fig. 100.—Church on Egilsey. North Elevation.
On the south side, and near the ground, is a window, but this is a modern work. There is a small window in the second story looking north. (See [Fig. 99.])
The chancel is 14 feet 11 inches by 9 feet 5½ inches inside; the side walls 2 feet 9 inches thick, and the east wall about the same. It is roofed with a plain barrel vault, of which the semicircular chancel arch forms part. (See [Fig. 101.]) The impost of this arch is 5 feet from the floor of the nave. Probably there was a step here or a little farther east.
The pressure of the vault has forced out the jambs of the arch (that is, the side walls), and given the arch a horse-shoe form. Dr. Wilson lays some stress on this peculiarity of form, taking it to be intentional, but it is purely the result of lateral pressure.
The east end has no window. On the north is a window 1 foot 7½ inches high and 11 inches wide at the outside, with a semicircular head, below the impost of the vault. The jambs are splayed inward to 2 feet 1 inch in width, without an external chamfer. On the south is a similar window. ([Fig. 102.]) Probably, like the nave windows, they were not originally glazed.
Over the vault of the chancel is a chamber, entered from the nave by a semicircular arch 6 feet 4 inches high and 2 feet 2 inches wide, over the chancel arch. (See [Fig. 101.])
Fig. 101.—Church on Egilsey. West and East Elevations.
It is lit by a flat-headed window in the east end, 1 foot 6 inches high. This probably served as a depository for books, muniments, &c.
It is called by the country people “Grief House,” and supposed to have been a prison, &c.
The side walls of this chamber are 2 feet 4½ inches thick, and the east wall 2 feet 7½ inches.
The ridge of the chancel roof was 20 feet 9 inches above the floor of the nave. [Figs. 103, 104 show the appearance of the building from south-east and north-west.]
It remains too approximate to the date of this church.
There was a church in Egilsey when St. Magnus was murdered in 1110. The attaching so large a tower to the church tends to show that this was a church of a superior order when it was built.
The style of architecture ([Fig. 103], [Fig. 104]) (discarding certain indications of an earlier date) prevents our assigning to it a later date than the beginning of the twelfth century. When we contrast it with the Kirkwall Cathedral, begun in 1137, we are forced to give an earlier date than that to Egilsey. This opinion is corroborated by the churches at Orphir and the Brough of Birsa. The islands were conquered by the Norsemen in 876, and reconverted to Christianity in 998. The church, therefore, was probably not built between those dates. There were Christians in these islands before the arrival of the Norsemen. The name of the island, as
Fig. 102.—Church on Egilsey. South Elevation.
before mentioned, is evidence that there was a church of distinction in Egilsey when they arrived.
Neale[129] supposes that the church to which St. Magnus fled was on the east side of the island; supposing Haco to have come from Birsay by the north of Rousay to the east of Egilsey. Haco’s starting point is not certain; but if it was Birsay, he would naturally have come by the south of Rousay to the west of Egilsey.
There is some confusion about the Episcopal Church and residence. Barry (p. 162) quotes Torfœus as stating that Bishop William lived in Egilsey. Neale (following Barry) has made the same statement.
Torfœus twice states that the bishop resided at Birsa.
The Saga is still more to the point, and states that at the time of St. Magnus’s death William the Old was bishop, and the see was then at Birsa. But Torfœus, in three or more other passages, states that Bishop William was in Egilsey—not necessarily residing there.
We must understand (if Torfœus is right) that he generally lived in Birsa, but often officiated at Egilsey. We may thence infer that Egilsey was an important church in Bishop William’s time, and that it was fixed
Fig. 103.—Church on Egilsey.
on as the place of meeting of Haco and Magnus from being frequently the bishop’s abode. We do not, however, find the bishop mentioned in the account of the murder of St. Magnus as adviser or mediator.[130]
Wilson, in his Prehistoric Annals, p. 587, has a notice of this church, to which the reader is referred. He supposes it to be the work of Irish Christians before the expedition of Harold in 876, and to be the church which caused the Norsemen to give its present appellation to the island.
There is at all events nothing to disprove this, but if we put the tower for the moment out of the question, there is little to induce the assignment of so early a date. The absence of freestone, the round arches, the chancel vault, the small number and size of the windows, do not necessitate a date earlier than the twelfth century.
The tower, then, is the feature which specially points to an earlier period. Dr. Wilson apparently inclines to class this tower with the later round towers of Scotland and Ireland.
When, however, we compare it, there appears little or no resemblance except its circularity.
The round towers, with one or two exceptions, are detached buildings, though situated within a few feet of churches, have their entrances at
Fig. 104.—Church on Egilsey. North-West View.
several feet from the ground, and have jambs inclined towards each other upwards. They have other differences of construction, which, however, may be in part accounted for by the difference of the available materials.
The Irish tower which most resembles Egilsey is the smaller one of the two at Clonmacnoise. This is an integral part of the church, and joined to the south-east angle of the nave. The entrance to it is on the ground, from the chancel. To this church Dr. Petrie assigns the date of some years before 1000 (p. 271). In many particulars the tower at Egilsey approximates more closely to the round towers of Norfolk, which are of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There is no evidence of another church in another place having existed in the island; nor account of the building of any church in the island.
These, however, are very slight evidences of the antiquity of the present church.
There does not appear to be positive evidence that the Christian priests were exterminated by the Norse conquest; though it is probable that they would fly westward. If, however, we give up the idea of its Norse origin, we ought to find resemblances between it and the ancient Irish churches of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. These we do find. First, the size of Egilsey is close on the authoritative size of the more important of the ancient churches, presuming the present foot to be about equal to the ancient Irish foot. The authorised Irish size is 60 feet by 27 feet; Egilsey is 62 feet 9 inches and 21 feet 7 inches. The lowness of the chancel, the chamber or “croft” over it, the second chamber in the tower with an arch from it into the nave over the tower arch, the number and size of the windows, the peculiarity of their splays, having no exterior chamfer, the character of the masonry, all resemble the early Irish churches. On the other hand, three great criteria of an early Irish church are not found in Egilsey—the approximation of the jambs of doors and windows towards their imposts, the horizontal heads to the doorways, and the east window. It seems, however, probable that the difference of the materials induced one of these differences. It was difficult to get in Orkney lintels strong and long enough for heads of doorways, though we find them in the broughs. The rebates in the doorways are again of a very early date.
It seems on the whole fair to suppose Egilsey to have been built after the traditional Irish form, but with modifications; and soon after the reconversion of the islands to Christianity in 998. If built before that time, we must refer it to the beginning or middle of the ninth century.
Unfortunately Neale, when in Orkney, was unable to see this church, and has given a cut, professing to be an approximate likeness of the tower, which is very erroneous in several particulars. The etching in Muir’s “Sketch” is also wrong in proportion.
In the Orcadian of January 1855 is an account by Mr. Petrie of the finding the remains of Bishop William “the Old” in the cathedral in 1848. His bones, and the chest containing them, were moved when the cathedral was reseated in 1856. The leaden plate bearing the inscription, and a bone article (doubtless the cross handle of his walking stick) found in the chest, are now in the Edinburgh Museum.