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.
CHURCH ON BROUGH OF BIRSAY.
The brough contains about 40 acres, and is separated on the east from the mainland by a rocky channel, which is about 150 yards wide, and dry at low water. The surface of the brough slopes down from a high cliff on the west to a cliff of about 20 feet high on the east. The chapel is about 50 yards from the shore at the point nearest to the mainland. ([Fig. 105.]) It is enclosed in a yard about 33 yards east and west, by 27 yards north and south, of which the wall is destroyed. At the edge of the cliff are traces of a wall. The chapel consists of nave, chancel, and apse, all well defined, and all apparently built at the same time. ([Fig. 106.]) The material is grey whinstone, and no traces of freestone dressings appear. It stands nearly east and west, but the west end facing a little to the north of west.
Fig. 105.—Church on Brough of Birsay. Plan of Site and Towers.
The extreme exterior length is 57 feet, and extreme width 21 feet 3 inches.
The west wall is 3 feet 8 inches thick; the north and south walls of nave and aisles 2 feet 9 inches; the wall of apse 2 feet 4 inches. There were no buttresses.
