Day16: 25 July 00
This has been a day of poor weather, either steady drizzle or damp low cloud and mist. For the first part of the day it was possible to work the site, but thereafter the layers began to turn to mud and it became difficult to continue.
By midday, however, it had been possible to excavate the chancel of the chapel down to a level which showed stone features, including a two-faced wall which may be the west wall of the building that underlies the chapel itself. Weather permitting, this can be looked at further tomorrow.
Inside the chancel looking east, showing the newly exposed wall in the foreground.
In the afternoon the weather at least gave us the opportunity to catch up with planning and by the end of the day large parts of the site lay ready for further investigation.
Essential, but souless; planning in the wet.
The weather also gave us the opportunity to consider the location of the 'other' chapel on Papa Stronsay. The chapel dedicated to St Bride is known to be located near the present farmhouse, but the precise whereabouts are unknown. The two chapels are recorded as being roughly the same shape and dimensions.
A possible contender for the St Bride's site is one of the unroofed outbuildings of the farm which lies on a different alignment to the rest of the buildings, is approximately the right size and appears to have a plinth foundation. Here, a trial excavation (governed by the shape of the flagged floor) has produced buried walling and fragments of steatite. Further work will continue tomorrow in order to see if more evidence can be recovered.
The possible site of St Bride's chapel lying as an unroofed outbuilding to the side of the house.
Remains of a buried wall line below the floor of the outbuilding.