The Kirk in the Garden of Evie
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THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE A Thumbnail Sketch of the History of the Church in Evie Trevor G Hunt Minister of the linked Churches of Evie, Firth and Rendall, Orkney First Published by Evie Kirk Session Evie, Orkney. 1987 Republished 1996 ComPrint, Orkney 908056 Forward to the 1987 Publication This brief history was compiled for the centenary of the present Evie Church building and I am indebted to all who have helped me in this work. I am especially indebted to the Kirk’s present Session Clerk, William Wood of Aikerness, who furnished useful local information, searched through old Session Minutes, and compiled the list of ministers for Appendix 3. Alastair Marwick of Whitemire, Clerk to the Board, supplied a good deal of literature, obtained a copy of the Title Deeds, gained access to the “Kirk aboon the Hill”, and conducted a tour (even across fields in his car) to various sites. He also contributed valuable local information and I am grateful for all his support. Thanks are also due to Margaret Halcro of Lower Crowrar, Rendall, for information about her name sake, and to the Moars of Crook, Rendall, for other Halcro family details. And to Sheila Lyon (Hestwall, Sandwick), who contributed information about Margaret Halcro (of the seventeenth century!). TREVOR G HUNT Finstown Manse March 1987 Foreword to the 1996 Publication Nearly ten years on seemed a good time to make this history available again, and to use the advances in computer technology to improve its appearance and to make one or two minor corrections.. I was also anxious to include the text of the history as a page on the Evie, Firth and Rendall Churches’ Internet site for reference and, since revision was necessary to do this, it was an opportunity to republish in printed form. TREVOR G HUNT Finstown Manse August 1996 THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE A Thumbnail Sketch of the History of the Church in Evie VIE HAS NOT featured prominently in recorded history, but has, rather, contented itself to get on with ordinary E living. Evie consists of three distinct districts: Inner Evie (Woodwick, Aikerness, Redland, Georth and Stenso); Outer Evie (from the Woo burn to Burgar); and Costa. An earth dike, the "Hill Dike", once extended along the whole west side of the parish from Rendall to Costa Hill, and remains of it can still be seen. Last century, in common with other parishes, each of Evie's districts were divided into townships. The "toon o' Aikerness", for example, consisted of Aikerness farm and the cot houses of Lawgae, Henley, Robert Hutchins, both the Wades, Kirkpretty, Stymbroo and Breck. Redland township, a district now hardly recognised by the name, consisted of Flaws, Niggly and Quoys. Other townships included Georth, Stenso and Howe. 1 Old Evie There are a number of sites in Evie which show evidence of pre- historic occupation to about 6,000 years ago. The Broch of Gurness (which contained remains from the Iron Age), at Aikerness, is one such place. The Broch of Burgar is another, although a human skeleton found there in 1825 appears to have been that of a comparatively modern person. Other brochs, and ancient sites can be found on Ordnance Survey maps of the area. 2 Abundant Corn The medieval history, Orkneyinga Saga , names the stretch of water between the island of Eynhallow and the Evie coast, Efjusund (Evie Sound). The Old Norse word, Efja , means a bay 1 James Omond, Orkney Eighty Years Ago (With Special Reference to Evie), (Kirkwall: Kirkwall Press, 1980 [1911]), pp.8ff. 2 See Appendix 1 for a list of sites and Ordnance Survey Grid References. 2 THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE 3 of tide-less water, according to The Third Statistical Account .3 the wisp", the spontaneous combustion of methane gas from This is an accurate description of the bay of Evie which lies decaying vegetation. If something like 70 tons of kelp a year inside the strong currents that run in the "Burgar röst" of was being produced from the sea weed, as it was in the Eynhallow Sound. The aiker in Aikerness also refers to a tide eighteenth century, 9 this could have been the source of the gas. race. 4 Even sea weed washed ashore in large quantity after recent Towards the end of the sixteenth century Evie was described gales might account for it. However, George Low says that by as "another parish where whales freely enter. Here there is the time he visited Evie (1778), it had "lost the faculty of great abundance of corn". 5 The abundance of corn was shining in the night time!". 10 Although Wallace had not seen confirmed by George Low when he visited Evie in 1778. He also the lights himself, he believed we should not doubt they were describes how the farm houses were close together and that sea really seen. If they did exist, "will o' the wisp" might explain the weed, or "tang", mixed with dung was used for manure. 6 Evie lights in the hills, but what were the mysterious lights in the seemed noticeably more fertile than other parts of the Mainland Kirk? It has been suggested that about that time the youths of and still remains agriculturally good. In the Third Statistical Stenness held their Yule festival in the Kirk there, and a similar Account it is called the "Garden of Orkney". custom may have been practised in Evie. But if the lights were Hugh Ross refers to the fields not being enclosed during the caused by those attending such a festival, then this surely eighteenth century. He also describes how the Orkney side- would have been well known. It could have been that some plough was then used. It had one stilt and was drawn by three pious Roman Catholics had secretly entered the church for or four small horses abreast. This was considered to be quite mass and their lighted tapers had been seen. Maybe the moon adequate for the well-worked soil and trials with a two stilt reflected from the glass of the windows, making the church plough did not produce any better results. 7 appear to be on fire. Because of superstitious dread not many James Wallace, a seventeenth century minister of Kirkwall, people would have been brave enough to enter the kirkyard to tells how that Evie's small hillocks near the sea frequently investigate. None of these explanations, however, seem to be appeared to be on fire at night. He describes the Kirk of St. totally adequate and the exact cause of these lights remains a Nicholas as being full of light, too, "as if torches or candles were mystery. burning in it all night". 8 Wallace explained these phenomena Howana Gruna, the mound on the west of Burgar Hill, has an as coming from, "some thick glutinous Meteor that receives that association with witches, according to local lore. 11 In 1864 a light in the Night time." This could be a reference to the "will o' woman's clothed body was discovered buried in the peat nearby. There is a story that she was a Rendall girl who was 3 Compiled mss by Dr A J Campbell (late minister of Evie) and supplementary murdered by two witches, tried in the Wallhouse of St. Magnus notes from Thomas G Tait (minister of Rendall) , "The United Parishes of Evie Cathedral in 1633. However, the clothing on the body, and Rendall" in Ronald Miller (ed.), The Third Statistical Account of Scotland - preserved by the peat, was commonly worn by women from 100 The County of Orkney (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1985). to 300 years before she was found and no certain date can be 4 Idem . given as to when she died. Besides, Rendall is a good way off 5 Jo[hn] Be[llende]n's description quoted by John Fraser, "The Antiquities of Evie Parish" in Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society (Kirkwall, from Howana Gruna and it is difficult to see why a Rendall 1929), Vol. VII p.41. woman would have been in so remote a place and that far from 6 George Low, "Tour through the North Isles and Parts of the Mainland of home. Orkney in the Year 1778" in Alfred W Johnston and Amy Johnston (eds.), Old-Lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, 1920), p.135. 7 Hugh Ross in the description of Evie in Sir John Sinclair (ed.), The Statistical 9 Ross, op. cit. , p.32. Account of Scotland (1791-1799) (Wakefield: EP Publishing, 1978), pp.74ff. 10 Low, op. cit. , p.135. 8 James Wallace, Description of the Isles of Orkney (Edinburgh: William 11 See W R Macintosh (compiler), Around the Orkney Peat Fires (Kirkwall: Brown, 1883 [1693]), p.32. Kirkwall Press, 1975), pp.188ff. 46 THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE THE KIRK IN THE GARDEN OF EVIE 5 Christianity in Orkney long and 5½ meters wide (24 feet by 18 feet). The door was in the west end, with a window in the east, but without an apse Christianity seems to have come to the peoples of Orkney (semicircular recess). Remains of a burial ground around the around the late 6th or early 7th centuries. 12 However, few building are evident, although part of the north side has been Pictish remains show Christian influence. But small iron Celt washed away by the sea. Last century, skeletons were exposed church bells have been found, together with stone crosses and after a storm and very high tides.