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St Donat's Church is a Grade I listed church in Welsh St Donats. Records of 1180 describe the church as a chapel confirmed to the Abbey of Tewkesbury. By 1563 it was known to have served as a parish church for the community. In 1603 it was considered to be a chapel of the church at Llanblethian, but by 1764 it received a stipend from Queen Anne's Bounty and was described as a curacy.
The church was re-plastered in 1996; during this process, the church was stripped of its old coat of plaster, leaving the entire structure bare to stones and mortar. This became an opportunity to do further dating on the building by examining the old mortar. It was thought that the church was constructed some time in the 15th to 16th centuries. but it became apparent that the windows and doors from that time frame were inserted into older walls by examining the mortar. A chancery wall gave evidence of having two lancet windows at one time; this was an indication that at least this portion of the building was constructed in the 13th century.
References:Trullhalsar is a very well-preserved and restored burial field dating back to the Roman Iron Ages (0-400 AD) and Vendel period (550-800 AD). There are over 340 different kind of graves like round stones (called judgement rings), ship settings, tumuli and a viking-age picture stone (700 AD).
There are 291 graves of this type within the Trullhalsar burial ground, which occurs there in different sizes from two to eight metres in diameter and heights between 20 and 40 centimetres. Some of them still have a rounded stone in the centre as a so-called grave ball, a special feature of Scandinavian graves from the late Iron and Viking Age.
In addition, there is a ship setting, 26 stone circles and 31 menhirs within the burial ground, which measures about 200 x 150 metres. The stone circles, also called judge's rings, have diameters between four and 15 metres. They consist partly of lying boulders and partly of vertically placed stones. About half of them have a central stone in the centre of the circle.
From 1915 to 1916, many of the graves were archaeologically examined and both graves of men and women were found. The women's graves in particular suggest that the deceased were very wealthy during their lifetime. Jewellery and weapons or food were found, and in some graves even bones of lynxes and bears. Since these animals have never been found in the wild on Gotland, it is assumed that the deceased were given the skins of these animals in their graves.
