The remains of the Orphir Round Church (or Round Kirk), dedicated to Saint Nicholas, are located in

Orphir Orphir (pronounced , Old Norse: Jorfjara/OrfjaraPedersen, Roy (January 1992) ''Orkneyjar ok Katanes'' (map, Inverness, Nevis Print)) is a parish and settlement on Mainland, Orkney. It is approximately southwest of Kirkwall, and comprises a s ...

Parish on the Mainland of Orkney,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It has been a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

since 2014.

Description

It consisted of an apse on the eastern side of its wide circular nave. It consisted of a circular

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

about six metres in diameter with a semicircular

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

with a central window. The walls are one metre thick.

History

It is thought to have been built by jarl (earl)

Haakon Paulsson Haakon may refer to: Given names * Haakon (given name) * Håkon, modern Norwegian spelling of the name * Håkan, Swedish spelling of the name * Hakon, Danish spelling of the name People Norwegian royalty * Haakon I of Norway (c. 920–961), ...

(earl from 1103 to 1123) as penance for murdering his cousin and co-ruler

Magnus Erlendsson Saint Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney, sometimes known as Magnus the Martyr, was Earl of Orkney from 1106 to about 1115. Magnus's grandparents, Earl Thorfinn and his wife Ingibiorg Finnsdottir, had two sons, Erlend and Paul, who were twin ...

(later Saint Magnus) in the late 11th or early 12th century. According to the Orkneyinga saga, earl Haakon took sole power in 1117 after the killing of Magnus, and the round kirk was later rededicated to St Magnus. The saga refers to a "large drinking-hall" with a "magnificent church" nearby. The remains of the drinking hall, known as the Earl's Bu, can still be seen, as well as a later Norse horizontal watermill. It is the oldest surviving round church in Scotland, which are rare, the only other round medieval church in Scotland, is found at

Roxburgh Roxburgh () is a civil parish and formerly a royal burgh, in the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at leas ...

near the English border. The building's design was inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem because at the time the Crusades were occurring and the circular church became popular design with returning crusaders attempting to copy the famous structure.

Modern Church

Almost the whole church survived until 1757, when most of it was demolished to provide stone for the new parish kirk, which has also now been demolished. Only the apse and a small segment of the round kirk's nave wall now survive. The site is now in the care of

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

and is open to the public. The remains are protected as a

Archaeology

Geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the E ...

s have proved to not be very effective in investigating the remains of the church but excavations have been more effective in understanding the history and development of the church.

Images

File:Orphir - round church - geograph.org.uk - 400899.jpg File:Orphir - round church - geograph.org.uk - 55906.jpg File:Orphir round kirk st nicholas 2.jpg

References

External links

* {{coord, 58.9219, N, 3.1567, W, source:wikidata, display=title Round churches 11th-century church buildings in Scotland 12th-century church buildings in Scotland 11th-century establishments in Scotland 12th-century establishments in Scotland Archaeological sites in Orkney Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Orkney Churches in Orkney Scandinavian Scotland Historic Environment Scotland properties Mainland, Orkney