<< Our Photo Pages >> St Lawrence's Church - Broch or Nuraghe in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Tuesday, 22 March 2011  Page Views: 6981

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: St Lawrence's Church Alternative Name: Burray (Southtown)
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Broch or Nuraghe
Nearest Town: St Margaret's Hope  Nearest Village: Burray Village
Map Ref: ND4917896425
Latitude: 58.852233N  Longitude: 2.882541W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : Eastern half of outer broch. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Broch in Orkney

Where the A961 leaves Buray Village heading east, where it turns to the last of the Churchill Barriers instead carry across to the road marked for the cemetery and Ness. Upon reaching Leith the cemetery road goes down directly by Leith's east side. The kirk was built in 1621, about the same time as the nearby Bow of Burray was rebuilt. What most surprised me is that despite a lack of megalithic stonework this is most definitely a broch site. The church sits where the tower was, though I'm unsure whether it is centred or to the edge. It sits in ground above the rest of the kirkyard as there is a two foot deep rectangular cut through the mound. The old wall at the east end looks deeper and a little different in character. The outer broch would appear to finish at this side as looking over the cemetery extension it just goes down to the low cliff - the broch surrounds the kirkyard on the north and west over to the path to the shore. When you think the stones must have been removed before ever (the present) kirk was built the landowners have kept it rather well preserved. It has elements reminding me of three other chapel brochs; the old Holm parish church and Warebeth in Stromness and Overbrough in Harray.
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St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : Eastern end of old kirkyard cutting into mound (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : The cross base showing two 'channels' from which snow meltwater was flowing today. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : Close up of the broken head of the cross (taken from its eastern side). (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : Standing near the southern wall of the churchyard, looking back towards the church, showing the proximity of the cross to the nave (about half way along its length and half way between the southern wall of the nave and the southern wall of the churchyard). (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : Looking due east across one of the broad faces of the cross. I wondered where the small fragments of broken arm were; they weren't in the church, as we searched around for these. Probably long lost. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : Walking towards the cross from the western end of the church. To avoid a muddy, lengthy walk from the gate into the church yard at the north western corner of the church, and also to avoid the scaffolding, we hopped over the low wire fence into the southern part of the churchyard.

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)
St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland) submitted by Anne T : First view of the St. Lawrence's Church Cross and Base from the path leading from the road up to the west door of the church.

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : old kirkyard sitting on broch mound

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : present churchyard wall with old kirkyard and mound on the right

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : western half of mound

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : Top of mound behind kirkyard.

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : View across mound to kirk.

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : SWerly edge of central mound

St Lawrence's Church
St Lawrence's Church submitted by howar : Probably not prehistoric, but peculiarly placed in the kirk

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"St Lawrence's Church" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: St Lawrence's Church by howar on Monday, 04 July 2011
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David Lynn has now been to the site. On the one hand the broch expert has dropped it down a level from "probable" owing to insufficiency ofsurviving circularity. On the other hand I somehow missed a lot of associated large stones and blocks, so Dave agrees there is definitely something very big under the mound on which the church sits.
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