Newport Tower & Orkney Islands Connection

Working from the premise that Prince Henry Sinclair was involved in the construction of the Newport Tower, it stands to reason that the architecture of the Tower should have similarities to that of northern Scotland, where Prince Henry ruled. Other researchers have identified the unit of measurement used to build the Tower as the Scottish "ell," and have also noted that the Tower's double flue system in the fireplace is consistent with medieval Scottish architecture. This above image of ruins of a Cistercian church at Eynhallow in the Orkney Islands (on the left), side-by-side with a Tower archway, is another eye-popping, vivid illustration of the probable Scottish origin for the Tower architecture. To make the connection to Prince Henry and the Sinclair clan even stronger, the Abbot in charge of Eynhallow in the mid-12th-century was Abbot Lawrence, previously known as Henry Sinclair of Rye.