Breckness House, sometimes known as Breckness Castle, is the site of the 17th-century mansion, chapel and burial ground, built by

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Stroller", he made 455 appearances in England's Football League as a midfielder or forward for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester Unite ...

(1565–1643), the

Bishop of Orkney The Bishop of Orkney was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Orkney, one of thirteen medieval bishoprics of Scotland. It included both Orkney and Shetland. It was based for almost all of its history at St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. The ...

. It is located near

Stromness Stromness (, ; ) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland, Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. Etymology The name "Stromnes ...

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

established the site as a scheduled monument in 1957.

Description

Breckness House is the ruined two-storey mansion built by the Bishop of Orkney, George Graham in 1633. It can be found on the southwest coast of

Mainland, Orkney The Mainland, also known as Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections. Seventy-five per cent of Orkney's popu ...

, about 3 km west of the town of

. The house is a large L-shaped building and was built with

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. The remaining walls stand two storeys high. The house's central block measures by . A wing to the central structure extends north at the east end of the central building and is wide. There is an enclosure visible on the south of the house that was most likely a garden. The entrance to the house originally displayed a panel with the arms and crest of Bishop Graham and the date of 1633. The panel was later removed because of the house's deteriorating condition and is now in

Skaill House Skaill House is a historic manor house in Sandwick, Orkney, Sandwick parish on Mainland (Orkney), Mainland, the largest of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The house overlooks the Neolithic site, Skara Brae, and the Bay of Skaill. In 1977, the hous ...

. Inside the house was a

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar around which a helical staircase winds. It can also refer to an upright post that supports or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post") ...

staircase that led to the first floor and doorways to the kitchen wing and the ground floor rooms. The first ground floor room has a fireplace and the second, larger room accessed the kitchen. The upper floor of the wing consists of a single room, used as a

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

. The first floor of the central block contained two rooms. There was probably an attic in the roof.

History

Graham was the last Bishop to build a house on

. He held the bishopric for over thirty years, from 1616 to 1638. Along with all the Scottish bishops at the time, Graham was removed from his see on 18 November 1638. He died in 1643. Historic Environment Scotland established the site as a scheduled monument in 1957. The monument consists of the 17th century estate and the remains of an earlier chapel and burial ground. A portion of this scheduled area covers a

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

settlement. The site of the chapel is visible in a small, elevated area south of Breckness House. East-west lying burials have been identified near the chapel. The

broch In archaeology, a broch is an British Iron Age, Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Brochs are round ...

which lies underneath the site has very little remaining of the original structure. In 2001, a stone was discovered near an old field wall, in an area near the house. The damaged stone contained a portion of a

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

inscription, which was too short to translate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breckness House Scheduled monuments in Orkney

Description

History

See also

References