What was the original use of the cell, or by whom it was made, is unknown. There is, however, in Orkney, a tradition, that a monk from the Western Isles came to Hoy, where he led a recluse life ; and it may be supposed he is the person who hewed this stone into the form of a cell.
Remarks made in a Journey to the Orkney Islands. By Principal Gordon of the Scots College in Paris. p256-268 in Archaeologica Scotica: transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 1 (1792).
There is also the following story:
A monk or saint, son of an Egyptian princess and a Persian officer (according to a table of Irish saints), was captered by the Moor and worked at the paintings of the mosque of Cordoba. After he escaped he stayed in Iona for several years and worked at the Book of Kells. He worked at the Rho-Chi page and added Moorish infuences.
He wanted to convert the Orkneys and went with a manned boat to "the heart of Celtic druidism".There he caused great turbulence but was put on the Isle of Hoy without any means for living. He died there in the next winter.
He may have been the mentioned monk who carved the Dwarfie Stane.
I lost the name of the "saint".