Newark

Nearest town:
Kirkwall (14km WNW)
OS reference:
HY575041
OS sheet:
6
Latitude:
58° 55' 21.17 N
Longitude:
2° 44' 19.91 W
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Newark

C
CARL Jul 16, 2012
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Visited 8.6.12

We parked in the car park right next to the beach and despite being windy the weather was fine.

Karen, Sophie and Dafydd played on the beach while I followed the sign posted path (Aikerskaill road) around the headland to the site of the ruined chapel. It is only a 5 minute walk.

The Souterrain was easy to spot; near the beach and blocked up with brieze blocks and stones.

It looks as though the Souterrain has been exposed due to coastal erosion?

A family of ducks paddled past, battling against the wind – good luck to them!

If you are ever in this area try to also take in a visit to the nearby St Ninian’s church (Hogg-back grave) and the Gloup sea cave – both worth a visit in their own right.

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Newark

wideford
wideford May 1, 2007
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The site lies between the present steading and the sea, the main structure being the excavated chapel. The published souterrain can be seen below its floor level emerging from the back at your right and coming 'out' from under the wall at a slight angle. It has been filled in with stones, as have two passages in the cliff face far to the E of the main site (I do not know their date) – presumably all by the excavators. It could be me, but I did not see the 'tunnel' exiting the cliff.

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Miscellaneous

Newark
Souterrain
wideford
wideford May 1, 2007
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RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50SE 3 at HY57460413 mostly survives as a 10th century chapel and burial-ground, the former turned into a 16th C laird's house, but two souterrains were found beneath the chapel.

Only one has been published. Though it is described as a 10m long curved chamber running E/W, leaving at the cliff edge, it actually runs more N/S at the coast and runs to about 50' i.e. continuing underground for some distance past the chapel. This latter information comes from a website started by two ex-diggers (http://www.hopkinsweb.org.uk/orkney/), with the earth-house shown as a tunnel in the plans incorporated within their diaries. Unfortunately this only covers the dig's first two years. Apart from this there is very little published about the Newark excavations, either on paper or online, excepting the NMRS details. Which is a shame as the last entry is the discovery of a skeleton lying on a slab that may have served a platform.

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Sites within 20km of Newark

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