School of Humanities | Sgoil nan Daonnachdan

Brough of Birsay, Orkney

 

Author 

Emeritus Professor Christopher D Morris, University of Glasgow

 

Region

Orkney

 

Date ranges

Early Pictish – Late Norse / Medieval

 

Project summary

Volume 3 of the Birsay Bay Project on The Brough of Birsay Investigations 1955-2014 was completed in late 2017 and is currently proceeding towards publication as a monograph by Historic Environment Scotland in their in-house series. Volume 1 (Morris 1989) recorded the earliest work on the site by Sir Henry Dryden in the mid 19^th century on the church and churchyard, followed by Volume 2 (Morris 1996) with a detailed publication of the work carried out under the direction of Dr J S Richardson in the 1930s. The new volume has a comprehensive account based on the archives in both Edinburgh and Swindon of the work undertaken by Dr Ralegh Radford and Mr Stewart Cruden between 1955 and 1964. It then has a detailed account of the excavations carried out on the site under the direction of the author between 1974 and 1981, together with a rescue excavation in 1993 and a geophysical survey carried out across the site in 2007 by Drs Susan Ovenden and David Griffiths. As well as artefactual studies by numerous specialists co-ordinated by Dr Colleen Batey and palaeobiological studies co-ordinated by Mr James Rackham, specific studies are presented of metallurigal material by Dr Gerry McDonnell, ogham inscriptions (including one found during the excavations) by Dr Katherine Forsyth, and a gilt-bronze mount of Insular origin by Ms Olwyn Owen. A re-analysis of all C-14 dates from sites in the Birsay Bay area is presented and discussed by Dr Zoe Outram, and a re-assessment of the architecture of the church and related buildings by Dr Richard Fawcett.

The final chapter by the author puts the Brough in the overall context of Birsay Bay, Orkney and the wider world between the Pictish and Late Norse/Medieval periods.

Keywords

Orkney; Brough of Birsay; Pictish settlement; Viking settlement; ogham inscriptions; Norse chapels; runic inscriptions; Earls of Orkney; Orkney Bishopric; Thorfinn; St Magnus

 

Bibliography

Crawford, B E 1983 ‘Birsay and the Early Earls and Bishops of Orkney’, Orkney Heritage 2 (= Birsay: A Centre of Political and Ecclesiastical Power), 97-118.

Crawford, B E 2005 ‘Thorfinn, Christianity and Birsay: What the saga tells us and archaeology reveals’, in O A Owen (ed), The World of Orkneyinga Saga. ‘The Broad-Cloth Viking Trip’, Kirkwall 2005, 88-110.

Cruden, S H 1958 ‘Earl Thorfinn the Mighty and the Brough of Birsay’, in K Eldjárn (ed), Þriðji Vikingafundur. Third Viking Congress, Reykjavík 1956, Reykjavík 1958, 156-62.

Cruden, S H 1965 ‘Excavations at Birsay’, Orkney, in A Small (ed), The Fourth Viking Congress, York, August 1961, = Aberdeen University Studies 149, Edinburgh and London (1965), 22-31.

Curle, C L 1974 ‘An Engraved Lead Disc from the Brough at Birsay, Orkney’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 105 (1972-4), 301-7.

Curle, C L 1982 Pictish and Norse Finds from the Brough of Birsay, 1934-1974, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series no 1, Edinburgh.

Curle, C L 1983 ‘The Finds from the Brough of Birsay 1934-1974’, Orkney Heritage 2(= Birsay: A Centre of Political and Ecclesiastical Power), 67-81.

Hunter, J R 1986 Rescue Excavations on the Brough of Birsay 1974-82, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph no 4, Edinburgh.

Hunter, J R and Morris, C D 1981 ‘Recent Excavations at the Brough of Birsay, Orkney’, in H Bekker-Nielsen, P Foote, and O Olsen (eds) Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, Århus 1977, 245-58.

Hunter, J R and Morris, C D 1982 ‘Appendix: Excavation of Room 5, Clifftop Settlement, Brough of Birsay 1973-4’, in Curle 1982, 124-138.

Hunter, J R, Bond, J M and Smith, A N 1993 ‘Some Aspects of Early Viking Settlement in Orkney’, in Batey, C E, Jesch, J and Morris, C D (eds) The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic, Edinburgh 1993, 272-284.

Lamb, R G 1974a ‘The Cathedral of Christchurch and the Monastery of Birsay’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 105 (1972-4), 200-5.

Lamb, R G 1983 ‘The Cathedral and the Monastery’, Orkney Heritage 2 (= Birsay: A Centre of Political and Ecclesiastical Power), 36-45.

Morris, C D 1989 The Birsay Bay Project Volume I. Coastal Sites beside the Brough Road, Birsay, Orkney. Excavations, 1976-1982, University of Durham, Department of Archaeology Monograph Series 1, Durham [with contributions from C E Batey, N Emery, D J Rackham, and others].

Morris, C D 1990 Church and Monastery in the Far North: An Archaeological Re-evaluation, The Jarrow Lecture 1989, Jarrow 1990, 43 pp, including 6 figures. Reprinted in Bede and his World. The Jarrow Lectures, Volume II 1978-1993, Aldershot 1994, 807-848.

Morris, C D 1993b ‘The Birsay Bay Project: A Résumé’, in Batey, Jesch and Morris (eds) 1993, 285-307.

Morris, C D 1995 ‘Birsay: An Orcadian centre of political and ecclesiastical power: A retrospective view on work in the 1970s and 1980s’, (O’Donnell Lecture 1993, University of Wales), Studia Celtica, XXIX, 1-29.

Morris, C D 1996a The Birsay Bay Project Volume 2. Sites in Birsay Village and on the Brough of Birsay, Orkney, University of Durham, Department of Archaeology Monograph Series 2, Durham [with contributions from B Ballin Smith, J W Barber, C E Batey, N Emery, D J Rackham, and others].

Morris, C D 2017 ‘Looking at, and for, inscribed stones: A note from the Brough of Birsay, Orkney’, in E Cambridge and J Hawkes (eds) Crossing Boundaries. Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Art, Material Culture, Language and Literature of the Early Medieval World, Oxford, 185-194

Morris, C D and Rackham, D J 1989 ‘Birsay Bay, Orkney: Human exploitation of natural and agricultural resources’, Hikuin, 15, 207-222.

Radford, C A R 1959/1978 The Early Christian and Norse Settlements at Birsay, Official Guide, 1959, 2^nd edition, 1978, Edinburgh.

Radford, C A R 1962a ‘The Celtic Monastery in Britain’, Archaeologia Cambrensis CXI, 1-24.

Radford, C A R 1962b ‘Art and Architecture: Celtic and Norse’, in F T Wainwright (ed)  The Northern Isles, Edinburgh & London, 163-187.

Radford, C A R 1983 ‘Birsay and the spread of Christianity to the North’, Orkney Heritage (= Birsay: A Centre of Political and Ecclesiastical Power) 2, 13-35.

RCAHMS 1946 Twelfth Report with an Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Orkney and Shetland, 3 vols, Edinburgh.

Ritchie, A 1983 ‘Birsay around AD 800’, Orkney Heritage (= Birsay: A Centre of Political and Ecclesiastical Power) 2, 46-66.

Ritchie, A 1986/2001/2006 [The] Brough of Birsay, official guide-book, 1^st edition 1986, revised edition 2001, souvenir guide revised edition 2006, Edinburgh.