The Herra Kirk

Medieval Chapels were situated at Windhouse and at Gremister and a later chapel west of the Burn of Volister.

'Ruins of Roman Catholic Chapels occur in almost every parish. None of them, in all probability, are older than 985, the year when Olaus Triguesson introduced Christianity into Orkney.'

Hugh Scot states that in the parish of North Yell there was a pre-Reformation chapel in ‘Down Herra’ whether or not the name refers to the district is unknown.

The parish of Mid Yell was united with the parish of South Yell in the sixteenth century. Near the close of the seventeenth century Fetlar and North Yell parishes were also joined.

The Herra Kirk 1990s

The union of the four parishes was broken up in 1709 when Fetlar and North Yell were severed from the other two. It is likely that the vicars, ministers or readers at Mid Yell also ministered at the Herra and although most people attended the church in Mid Yell it is also likely that they attended church in other areas too.

Ministers of Mid Yell parish were:

John Fallowsdaill - 1562

William Lauder-1575 (he was an old friend of Laurence Bruce)

Magnus Norsk-1586 (is said to have gone to Norway to learn Norse that he might preach to the Zetlanders)

James Lauder-1596

Andrew Edmondston-1597

John Edmondston-1617 of Graveland

Robert Mowat-1655

Robert Ramsay-1684

Thomas Hay-1717 (Thomas's nephew William went to Shetland to live with Thomas. When only twenty he set up business in Yell as a merchant fish curer. The business did not prosper)

Robert Anderson-1746

Andrew Dishington-1778

John Finlayson-1805

John MacGowan-1825

James Robertson-1828

James Barclay-1844

John Love-1886

David Scott-1910

Duncan McCorkindale-1918

Gordon Laurie-1918

These notes reveal the characters of some notable ministers of the parish.

David Fallowsdale, son of John, held land at Lumbister and Gardie and obviously had some wealth. He appeared in court and was ordered to release a servant who had been detained by him for a whole winter against the man's will. The sum he had to pay was £20, one merk for each night of the period.

Andrew Edmondston acquired the lands of Hascosay and Gravaland [Graveland]. One of his daughters, Ursula, married Ninian Neven of Windhouse.

John Edmondston, second son of Andrew, was jointly minister with his father. He was named as one of the persons who drew up and presented to the Privy Council the document dealing with the charges of oppression against Neven of Windhouse. He was referred to as being 'lawfully suspended for his gross miscarriages.' John Edmondston had sons Gaspert [of Gravaland] and John. John Finlayson was charged with Impropriety of conduct. He abused John Raby, a Wesleyan Methodist preacher by calling him a 'stupid blockhead' and a 'damned villain'. John Raby had arrived in Shetland in 1822 after doing missionary work in the West Indies.

One day while leading prayers at a house in the North Isles of Shetland he had been pushed from behind and lifted off his feet. When he opened his eyes after prayer he realised a sow had done the pushing.

This wedding on the shore incident intrigued Chas. We would like to have witnessed it. I expect that it was the talk of the Herra at the time.

Basil Williamson from Lumbister and Catherine Robertson from Volister were to be wed. John Finlayson was the minister. He had a reputation of being very strict and unyielding. The couple had gone from Volister to be wed by Finlayson who lived in Mid Yell but who had a session meeting in Fetlar to attend and did not want to conduct the service saying to the couple that they could wait until another time. Everything had been arranged and friends and relatives were going to Volister to celebrate. The local men were annoyed and would not take the minister in the boat until he married the couple. He at last relented and married them there on the shore. It was said that the rain started and the minister's umbrella was taken from the boat to hold over the bride preventing her from getting her best clothes soaked.

As was custom at the time a poem was written about the event.

Fie be on the minister

And fie be on him lang

For he married Catherine Robertson

Among the golden tang

Fie be on the minister

And fie be on his banes

For he married Basil Williamson

Among the ebb stanes.

Finlayson was furious when he heard the poem.

There could have been an early kirk in the Herra about 1812 at the time of the Rev John Findlayson but this is unsubstantiated and neither of us had heard of where it might have been built.

The early churches dealt out punishment for crime and sin. A sinner had to confess their guilt in front of the congregation, be reprimanded and then show repentance. Sometimes they were suspended from church for a time. For more severe ‘crimes’ they could be fined, ordered to fast, ordered to attend services barelegged, barefoot, bareheaded and wearing sackcloth. Some were branded or flogged. Others were ordered to stand in church on Sundays while performing bizarre sentences such as holding their tongue, wearing notices of their sin and even made, it was said, to suffer the ordeal of standing during Sunday service with a smoking ember perched on their head.

In 1890 the Church Records of Mid Yell list a number of Herra men who were the first to come forward and offer to rebuild the walls of the churchyard in Mid Yell. The Church Records state their names and the message that:

'Whoever reads the name of one recorded here on some dilapidated stone in the churchyard may have the same humanity and respect to him as he when alive testified to others'

Among others the Herra volunteers mentioned were Basil Jameson, John Bartleson, Gilbert Mann, John Smollet and Laurence Charleson.

The Herra Kirk was built in 1912. Pews were allocated to each local family. Few marriages were conducted in the Herra Kirk.

Latterly services were held alternately with other Yell parishes and for some years a Sunday School was held for the children.

Bodies were taken to the the Mid Yell Kirk Yard to be buried and this continued to be so after the Herra Kirk was built.

Without transport people had to carry the deceased to be buried but whenever possible a boat would have been used. For example from Graveland the coffin would have been transported by boat to Lik Wick [Lik meaning corpse]. Then on to Mid Yell. Lik Wick is a place near The Houb where the rocks form a natural landing spot. We can assume that another boat was used from the head of Mid Yell Voe to the kirkyard.

The funeral of a Whalsay woman who had married and gone to live at Effstigarth was to be held in Whalsay. One of the elderly Spences told how the boat 'The Swan' came to the shore at Graveland. The coffin was carried from Effstigarth to 'The Swan' and taken back to Whalsay.

The nearest houses to the kirk are at Uphouse. The house on its own and still inhabited was a school before the newer school was built in 1890. I could tell Chas that my grandfather and his siblings had attended the newer school when they moved to the Herra from Dalsetter. They remembered Gilbert Scollay, the teacher.