The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

It is with extreme hesitation that I venture to hint a doubt in regard to any of the conclusions arrived at in the "Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion," regarding it, as I do, as a nearly perfect model of critical analysis and research. Yet even Dr. Petrie occasionally seems not to have entirely escaped the influence of that temptation to assign the remotest conceivable antiquity to these national monuments, which proved so effectual a stumblingblock to his predecessors. Notwithstanding the evidence adduced for the date assigned to the erection of the Round Tower of Kildare, it is impossible to overlook the fact, that the doorways both of that and of the tower at Timahoe are decorated with ornaments and mouldings, which, though not without their own peculiar details, essentially correspond to those found throughout Europe on works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. If the record of erection at a particular date, with the absence of any notice of rebuilding, were to be accepted in proof of the date of styles, there is probably no single phase of medieval ecclesiastical architecture which might not be proved on such evidence to be coeval with the earliest. The silence of all authorities as to the re-erection of churches once built is a species of negative proof of the smallest possible value. In the ruined nave of Holyrood Abbey at Edinburgh, the experienced eye may detect work of nearly every period from the twelfth to the seventeenth century; yet in some places the mouldings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are so ingeniously engrafted on the original Romanesque work, that it is hardly possible precisely to define the amount of change. The ingenuity with which the old masons have thus remodelled churches to bring them into correspondence with the progressive developments of pointed architecture, completely baffles the attempt to fix from single examples, such as the remarkable doorway of Timahoe, the work of a precise date. The form of arch, the chevron mouldings, decorated capitals, the sculptures on the imposts, are all such as the experienced eye would assign to the era of the Romanesque or Anglo-Norman style; and this idea is rather strengthened than weakened by the finely-jointed character of the ashlar-work, as such well-finished masonry is rarely met with in any English edifice prior to the twelfth century. The well-known details common to the Romanesque style are undoubtedly accompanied, as might be expected, by others peculiar to Ireland; but these examples referred to do not differ more from any twelfth century building in England or Scotland than does the beautiful stone-roofed Church of Cormac, on the Rock of Cashel, to which Dr. Petrie assigns, on indisputable evidence, the date of 1134. I am induced to direct attention to these points—otherwise foreign to the subject in hand—because the few marked characteristics which can be referred to on the round towers of Scotland correspond with those in Ireland which, according to all received ecclesiological analogies, seem to indicate an earlier date than the towers of Timahoe or Kildare, or the presumed contemporary monastery of Rathairn, and can hardly be supposed to be works of a later period. On this point I find it difficult to follow Dr. Petrie, who assigns to these specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, marked by details corresponding with works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in England and Scotland, a date not later than the close of the eighth century, while the tower of Donaghmore, which bears considerable resemblance to the Scottish round tower at Brechin—though greatly inferior in the amount or richness of ornament—is ascribed to the early part of the tenth century, or fully a century prior to the date of the corresponding Scottish building. Yet there are also points of resemblance of a sufficiently marked character, both in the peculiar masonry and details of the Timahoe and Brechin Towers. The pellet and bead moulding on the soffit of the former also very closely corresponds with the finish of the architrave in the Scottish doorway, though their decorations otherwise greatly differ.

Doorway, Round Tower, Donaghmore.

The well-known round towers of Scotland are those of Abernethy and Brechin; but in addition to these we have the ancient church and tower of St. Magnus, Egilshay, in Orkney, which, though hitherto generally overlooked from its remote and inaccessible position, is no less interesting and worthy of note. The little church of St. Magnus, on the island of Egilshay, still remains in tolerably perfect condition though roofless, consisting of a chancel, nave, and round tower at its west end, which appears, when perfect, to have been between fifty and sixty feet high. It was roofed with an irregular dome-shaped capping, and both the nave and chancel were also protected, at no very distant period, with a roofing of stone. Dr. Hibbert, in his "Description of the Shetland Isles," refers to this little Orkney edifice as a specimen of the ancient Scandinavian Church, corresponding, as he conceives, to others which formerly existed in Shetland. After describing Burra, St. Ronan's, and other localities in the Bay of Scalloway, he goes on to remark,—"On an adjacent promontory, named Ireland, once stood a church which was adorned with a lofty steeple. But of three buildings of this kind situated in Ireland, Burra, and Tingwall, that were said to have been erected by Norwegian sisters, it is unfortunate that not one should now remain."[614] It is in illustration of the presumed appearance of these that the church of Egilshay is referred to as "a small religious edifice in Orkney, which these kirks of Shetland are said to have much resembled."

The date of these churches, which tradition thus assigns to Norwegian builders, is not known. If, however, we were to take the dedication of the one still remaining on the island of Egilshay as a clue to the whole, we should be compelled to assign them to a comparatively recent period, and one later by more than a century than the most modern of the round towers of the mainland.

According to well-known Scandinavian records, the introduction of Christianity into the Orkney Islands was effected by the Norwegian king Olaf Trigvason, better known to us as St. Olaf, on his return from an expedition to Ireland in the year 998, having himself received baptism not long before in the Scilly isles. This important change, however, which the warrior missionary characteristically effected at the edge of the sword, there is good reason for believing only affected the Norwegian jarls. Christianity, as has been already shewn, had long preceded the conquest of these islands by the Northmen. The missionaries of Iona had not been so effectually scared by the intrusion of these fierce invaders as to abandon the numerous scenes of their early labours; and it is entirely consistent, both with the history of the northern islands and the characteristics of the primitive little edifice referred to, to believe that the church which still stands, though in ruin, on the island of Egilshay was the scene of Christian rites, amid "the storm-swept Orcades," when the rude Norse king landed his strange missionary crew on the neighbouring isle.

It can hardly admit of doubt that the simple little church and tower of St. Magnus, Egilshay, were built from Irish models. Even if its origin were satisfactorily traced to Norwegian founders, the frequent expeditions of the Northmen to Ireland would suffice to account for this. St. Olaf visited Ireland before his memorable visit to the Orkneys, on his way to Norway, bent on introducing the new faith into his own country. Sigurd, the Jarl whom he converted by the summary alternative of embracing Christianity or forfeiting his dominions, fell in the great battle of Clontarf, in Ireland, A.D. 1014, in which Danes and Northmen of Northumberland, the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Man, fought along with other foreign auxiliaries, on behalf of the Danish colonists of Ireland, against the famous Irish monarch, Brian Boru, while among his allies were the Scottish Maormors of Lennox and Marr. Gray's celebrated ode of "The Fatal Sisters" is a paraphrase of an ancient poem in the Icelandic Saga, on the battle in which the Northmen suffered so terrible a defeat. In this contemporary poem, Hilda, the Scandinavian goddess of war and victory, is introduced with her weird-sisters, the Valkyries, who attended on the field of slaughter to convey the spirits of the dying heroes to the hall of Odin, and otherwise received in the Scandinavian mythology nearly the same attributes as the Parcæ of the Greeks. These Scandinavian Fates are represented as having been seen at Caithness, in Scotland, by a man named Darraudar, on the very day of the battle of Clontarf. They were on horseback, riding swiftly towards a hill, into which they entered, and on looking through an opening of the rock he saw twelve gigantic females weaving a web at a strange loom. Their shuttles were weapons of war, their warp was weighted with human heads, and they wove with human entrails the ghastly texture of "the loom of hell." As they plied their shuttles they sang a dreadful incantation, on finishing which they tore the web into twelve pieces, and each taking her portion they mounted their black steeds and rode off, six to the north and six to the south. That same day they appeared on the field of Clontarf busied amid the heaps of the slain. Such was the creed of the Norse Jarls sixteen years after the conversion of Sigurd of Orkney by St. Olaf, and the sole fruit of their last visit to Ireland. It is not to them, therefore, that we must look for the introduction of the models of the first Christian churches of Orkney. It is much more probable that the earlier missionaries of St. Columba were themselves the architects of the humble little fane which remains on the island of Egilshay, as well as of many others that once adorned the neighbouring isles. It closely corresponds in general characteristics with Dr. Hibbert's account of the ancient churches of Shetland, of which traces still exist. "All the ecclesiastical buildings," he remarks, "appear to have been devoid of the least show and ornament, the ingenuity of the architect extending little farther than in constructing a round vaulted roof. The pointed arch, the pinnacled buttresses, or rich stone canopy, never dignified the chapels of humble Hialtland. The number of them, however, was remarkably great. The parish of Yell, for instance, boasted twenty chapels, where only two or three are used at the present day."[615] The venerable little Church of Egilshay has fallen into like decay, and the inhabitants are now compelled to seek a place of worship on a neighbouring island.

St. Magnus's Church, Egilshay.

Like other Orkney buildings of very different dates, this primitive church is constructed almost entirely of the unhewn clay-slate of the district. The tower is unsymmetrical, tapering somewhat irregularly towards the top, and bulging considerably on the side attached to the church. It differs from other examples in having no external doorway. It has evidently been built contemporaneously with the church, and is entered from the nave by means of a door through the west wall. The accompanying view from the south-east will help to convey some idea of its external appearance. Since the view engraved in Dr. Hibbert's Plate of Antiquities was drawn, the stone roofs both of the church and tower have disappeared, along with a portion of the walls of the latter, which was taken down from the apprehended danger of its falling. The following are the proportions of the church and tower. The greatest circumference of the tower is forty-eight feet, and its present height about forty-five feet. There is no appearance of any stair having been constructed in it, but two beams of oak near the top, and two lower down, still indicate the arrangement of the floors by which it has at one time been subdivided. Directly above the door on the eastern side, connecting it with the nave, are the only two windows in the tower, one above the other, arched with unhewn stone. The doorway is only four feet in height from the present floor, and two feet four inches broad. The walls of the nave are about three feet thick, and it measures thirty feet long by sixteen feet wide within the walls. It is entered both on the north and south sides by doorways constructed "more Romano," with a plain semicircular arch of unhewn stone. On the north side there is but one small arched window, three feet three inches in height, and only nine inches wide; while on the south side, in addition to a corresponding window of similar size, there are two other plain square-headed windows, measuring respectively two feet eleven inches by one foot two inches, and one foot nine inches by one foot one inch. The chancel is still covered in with a plain semicircular arch, above which has been a chamber, constructed between it and the outer covering of stone, and accessible only by an entrance over the chancel arch, where in all probability was kept the muniment chest of the officiating priest. Such an arrangement is traceable in early Irish churches, as in the original work of the beautiful church at Rathain, in King's county, which Dr. Petrie assigns as the work of St. Fidhairle Ua Suanaigh, who died in 763.[616] The chancel measures within the walls eleven feet by nine feet seven inches, and is lighted only by a small window in the north and south walls, measuring each twenty by eleven inches. But perhaps the most singular feature of this interesting structure is the chancel arch, which, directly contrary to those of corresponding edifices in Ireland, has its sides inclined inward towards the base, so as to present a complete horse-shoe arch. It is scarcely possible to examine the details of this most interesting relic of early Christian art, without recognising its manifest correspondence with the primitive Irish churches of the sixth and seventh centuries, which Dr. Petrie's researches have rendered so familiar to us.