Note 5 — INTRODUCTION.

St. Ninian was commemorated at Dunrossness in Shetland (Sibbald’s Description, 1711, p. 15); at Stove in South Ronaldsay, Orkney (Peterkin’s Rentals, No. III.); at the north head of the bay of Wick in Caithness; and at Navidale in Sutherland. St. Columba’s three chapels in South Ronaldsay were at Grymness, Hopay, and Loch of Burwick (Peterkin’s Rentals, No. III. p. 86). There were also dedications to St. Columba in the islands of Sanday and Hoy in Orkney, at Olrig and Dirlet in Caithness, on Island Comb, at Tongue, and at Kilcalmkill in Sutherlandshire (Bishop Forbes’s Calendar of Scottish Saints). St. Triduana, whose name has been corrupted into St. Tredwell and St. Trudlin (the Tröllhæna of the Saga), had dedications in Papa Westray in Orkney (Martin’s and Brand’s Descriptions), and at Kintradwell in Sutherlandshire. It seems also, from the narrative of Bishop John’s mutilation in the Saga, that there was a dedication to her near Thurso. St. Brigid had chapels in Stronsay and Papa Stronsay in Orkney. But it is impossible to tell how many of these early religious sites had similar dedications, as scarcely a tithe of those that are known have preserved their names. Brand and Sibbald both mention the fact that in their time there were still recognisable the sites of 24 chapels in the island of Unst, 21 in the island of Yell, 10 or 11 in the island of Fetlar: 55 religious foundations in the three most northerly islands of the Shetland group. The Christian period of the Norse occupation is marked by dedications showing the influence of the Crusades or of the national religious feeling. The dedications to the Holy Cross, St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Lawrence, St. Olaf, and St. Magnus, are probably all of this period.