St Ninian's Church, Skaill

1798, altered, Joseph Mitchell, 1829, interior altered 1924. 1 x 4-bay rectangular-plan gabled hall church with corbelled, pyramidal-roofed birdcage bellecote to W gablehead; low single-bay gabled session house to W end; low, single bay gabled vestry to E end. Harled. Round-arched windows.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: bays grouped 1-4-1. Tall window in each bay to centre. Boarded door, offset to left, in recessed session house bay to right. Window in recessed vestry bay to left.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: bays grouped, from left, 2-4-1. Tall window in each bay to centre. Boarded door offset to right with window to left flanking, in recessed session house bays to left. Boarded door in recessed vestry bay to right.

W ELEVATION: window, offset to left in gabled session house bay; gablehead stack; round-arched window below birdcage gablehead bellecote above.

E ELEVATION: blank gabled vestry wall with gablehead stack; round-arched window to crucifix-finialled gablehead.

Fixed timber-framed windows. Old Orkney grey slate roof; red clay ridge; coped skews; cavetto-moulded skewputts; harled, corniced stacks; cast-iron rainwater goods with some uPVC replacements.

INTERIOR: boarded, canted ceiling with central, hexagonal ventilator; boarded dado; 2-leaf timber-panelled door within round-arched recess from session house to W end; WWI commemorative timber communion table with blind arcade, carved chair and pulpit; round-arched timber-panelled door to vestry to E end; timber pews; timber-panelled door and fireplace to session house; hogback tombstone in session house, (see Notes).

CHURCHYARD AND RAILINGS: rubble walls enclosing rectangular-plan churchyard to W of church; rubble, square-plan piers with curved pyramidal caps to N of W gable; 2 sets of harled square-plan piers with curved pyramidal caps to S wall; timber gates; decorative ironwork railing along S wall; predominantly late 18th and 19th century headstones.