St Runius Church

[curiouswombat]

A few weeks ago someone from the USA saw my photos of Marown Church on Flickr and asked me a little about his possible Lewney/Lawney/Looney ancestors buried there. I pointed out that it would not have been there, but in the yard of the old church, based on when they left the island. And so, today, I went up to old St Runius with my camera as it

Comments

[wellinghall]

I saw the subject line, and I thought, "I bet that's curiouswombat ... "

[curiouswombat]

And lo! You were right!

Someone who hasn't been around LJ for a while did a whole series of posts about early English churches, and they were always a lot more decorative than ours, which I fear are really rather boring with their plain white-wash.

[slaymesoftly]

Wonderful pictures. You live on such a fascinating island. I love this little church.

[curiouswombat]

I am very fortunate.

I love the way you can see how the church on the site developed over hundreds of years - knocking a wall down here, filling a window up there, and so on.

[ellynn_ithilwen]

The church looks quite old - at least that's my impression based on outside-view.

Which reminds me of another questions - what are the oldest buildings on your island and how old are they? When was the island inhabited?

[curiouswombat]

Parts of this one are over 800 years old.

The earliest signs of habitation on our island date to the Mesolithic age - about 5,000BC - but these are artefacts rather than buildings.

The oldest stone structures are Neolithic - so from about 4,000BC.

Here's a picture I took a while ago of one of the neolithic structures - known as King Orry's grave, but in reality nothing to do with him as he came thousands of years later.

The oldest buildings in continuous use are the small churches - the people always tended to live in buildings of wood and turf so they have not survived.

[petzipellepingo]

A very lovely and peaceful looking church.

[curiouswombat]

It is rather a sweet, and very peaceful, little place.

[deborahw37]

Lovely!

[curiouswombat]

It is a lovely wee spot - although very plain when compared to its Anglo-Saxon equivalent.