2011

HU3620 : St Ninian's Church remains (4) from SE

taken 15 years ago, near to Bigton, Mainland, Shetland Islands, Scotland

St Ninian's Church remains (4) from SE
St Ninian's Church remains (4) from SE
The view of St Ninian's Church from the SE (looking NW) shows the large depression in the ground to the south of the remaining walls of the church. This area contains the remnants of Christian cists (stone burial chambers) nearer the camera, and of pre-Christian cists beyond them in the depression. I think that all of this area has been well excavated and studied by archaeologists, especially once the tremendous St Ninian's Treasure had been discovered here. See shared description below and images HU3620 : St Ninian's Church remains (1) from SW HU3620 : St Ninian's Church remains (2) from West & HU3620 : St Ninian's Church remains (3) from East
St Ninian's Isle

Lying off the west coast of Mainland Shetland adjacent to the village of Bigton, St Ninian's Isle is connected to the main island by a shell-sand tombolo, reckoned to be the finest (and largest active) example in the British Isles.
St Ninian's occasionally becomes a true island when tides and weather combine to inundate the tombolo, but usually it is, strictly speaking, a peninsula.
The little island has an area of approximately 178 acres (72ha) and rises to a maximum elevation of 174' (53m). According to the information board on the Bigton side of the tombolo, the coastal walk around the island is approximately 3½ miles (5.3km) long and will take about 1½ - 2 hours to complete. This board also tells us that the island was inhabited until 1775, though Wikipedia gives a date of 1796.
On 4th July 1958, a schoolboy, Douglas Coutts, who was helping visiting archaeologists, uncovered the fantastic Pictish silver "St Ninian's Isle Treasure" dating from c.800 AD see LinkExternal link and LinkExternal link for more details.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rob Farrow and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Coastal Historic sites and artefacts Religious sites Islands Ruin: Chapel other tags: Treasure Church St Ninian Cist Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
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HU3620, 84 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Rob Farrow   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Thursday, 1 September, 2011   (more nearby)
Submitted
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! HU 3685 2090 [10m precision]
WGS84: 59:58.2822N 1:20.5031W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! HU 3686 2089
View Direction
Northwest (about 315 degrees)
Clickable map
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SW S SE
Image classification(about): Geograph
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