Seminar

Video: The memorialisation of religious and community identities in Orkney

The recording of February’s UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar, which took place on Friday, February 25, 2022.

The recording of February’s UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar – ‘They Are Preserved Forever’: Visualising the Memorialisation of Archipelagic Religious and Community Identities, which took place on Friday, February 25, 2022.

Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon and Dr James Moore examine the complexities of religious identities in island communities. With a focus on nineteenth and twentieth century evidence, approached within a broader chronological context going back to the Middle Ages, they have mapped the dwelling places of the people memorialised in two burial grounds in Orkney.

The results show that the people with memorial stones were buried within a long-established parochial structure but did not adhere to ecclesiastical norms, with district burial grounds being favoured over a single parish churchyard.

St Magnus Kirk, Egilsay. (James Moore/Sarah Jane Gibbon)