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
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.