Lunna Kirk Preservation Group

With grateful thanks to our many supporters, since 27th March 2024, Lunna Kirk Preservation Group has become the proud owner of the Lunna Kirk.  Focus for the group has now shifted to preserving the Kirk for future generations.  Lunna Kirk (St. Margaret's) is situated in the centre of Lunna, part of the parish of Lunnasting on the northeast coast of the Shetland Mainland.  There is a strong possibility that some of the structure of Lunna Kirk and certainly the site it stands on dates back to the 1100s as a place of Christian worship.  It is by far the oldest working church in Shetland.  Its unusual structure, with large buttresses and a lepers squint (a portal to allow lepers to hear and see the service without coming amongst the congregation), is suggestive of architectural features from the 1300s or 1400s.

 From 1701, St. Margarets' was used by the Hunter family (Lairds of Lunna) as a private chapel and place of internment for their family, after a redefining of parish boundaries had taken the Kirk out of public use.  However, after what seems to have been a fairly significant refurbishment in 1753 the Lunna Kirk was reinstated as a parish church once more.  It was most probably during this upgrade work that the very impressive pulpit was built and also probably when the three-sided seated gallery was created.  It is a very impressive space that has a good and intimate connection to the pulpit and the extra seating was much needed to accommodate the then growing congregation, in line with the population increase of the 18th century in Lunnasting.  Access to the gallery comes by an exterior stone stair, another fine feature that adds to the unique qualities of Lunna Kirk.

 During the Second World War, Lunna was the original base for the S.O.E. and Norwegian Freedom Forces which combined on operations known as the Shetland Bus.  This secret connection between Norway and Shetland saved many refugees from Nazi-occupied Norway and was the footing for many clandestine operations throughout the Second World War.  These operations involved various vessels throughout its operational time in the early, Lunna-based days of the Shetland Bus, most of these dangerous missions used only small fishing boats crewed by local sailors and fishermen. 

There are two Norwegian war graves in the Lunna kirkyard.  One is the grave of an unknown sailor who was lost when the cargo ship SS Hop was torpedoed in February 1940.  The other is of an unknown sailor whose body was found drifting by a local resident and was buried in June 1942.  Nils Nesse, the first Norwegian to lose his life during the Shetland Bus operations was also buried at Lunna.  His body was repatriated to Norway in 1948.

 The naval officer and writer David Armine Howarth, who was instrumental in running the Shetland Bus and wrote a wonderful account of these operations, had his ashes scattered on the waters of Lunna Bay, just by the Lunna Kirk, where he is remembered by a plaque in the kirkyard.

 The Lunna Kirk continued to serve its community throughout and beyond the Second World War and does so to this day.  Its congregation and many visitors from throughout Shetland and across the world still find Lunna Kirk a place of great historic and spiritual importance.  By saving Lunna Kirk for continued use by the community, we hope to see the Lunna Kirk thrive into the future as it has served and enriched in the past.