Brough of Birsay

Today, the Brough of Birsay is a small tidal island off the Orkney mainland. Between the AD 600s and 1200s, the area was settled by the Picts and Norse. 

The words ‘brough’ and ‘birsay’ both come from the Old Norse ‘borg’ (‘fort’), but their meanings are slightly different. ‘Brough’ refers to the natural defences of the island. ‘Birsay’ (previously byrgisey) means an island accessible only by a narrow neck of land.

Visible remains here comprise a Norse settlement from the 9th to 11th century and the 12th-century church of St Peter and its monastery. These lie over traces of an earlier Pictish settlement (7th and 8th centuries).

Objects found here tell us that the site was a high status settlement for all of its life. Birsay was probably a Pictish power centre, and the village itself is likely the site of the first Orcadian bishopric (diocese) and seat of the earldom of Orkney.

Excavations show that Picts lived on the island in the late 7th century. Today, the most tangible sign of their presence is the replica symbol stone inside the graveyard.  It bears four Pictish symbols, including a Pictish beast and an eagle, above an unusual scene featuring three armed men. The original stone is in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

There is also a small well from Pictish times on the east side of the churchyard. Evidence of metalworking was found nearby.

High quality objects found at Birsay include brooches, rings, bone combs and dress pins. The Brough of Birsay may help us to understand how some Pictish artefacts were found in Norse houses - a clue as to how Pictish and Norse societies in Orkney may have interacted. It could be evidence of peaceful coexistence or the objects may have been taken by force.

Norse people settled on the brough in the early 9th century, and the remains of their houses and barns can still be seen.

The settlement developed over the next 300 years. The building and rebuilding has left a complex maze of walls which sit one on top of the other between the later churchyard and the sea.

The individual rooms of 10th-century houses, part of a house with underfloor heating and the possible remains of a 10th or 11th-century blacksmith’s workshop, barn and sauna, are still recognisable.

A small church and what appears to be a monastery were built in the final phase. Apart from St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, this is one of the most sophisticated medieval ecclesiastical buildings to survive in the Northern Isles.

The Romanesque style church has stone benches along the side walls of the nave, alcoves for altars on either side of the chancel entrance and a small cloister, housing domestic buildings.

Birsay’s importance as an ecclesiastical centre declined from the 1100s. The monastery was probably short-lived and may never have been completed.