Desk Based Assessment
Date 1970
Event ID 674341
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/674341
NM60NW 1 Centred NM 64017 09724
(Centred at NM 640 097) Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)
Cells (NR) (In Ruins)
Burial Ground (NR)
Human Remains found AD 1859 (NAT)
Tobar Challuim-chille (NR)
OS 6" map (1900)
A monastery was established on Eilach an Naoimh by St Brendan of Clonfert in 542, and according to St Columba's biographer, Adamnan, many of the miracles and other incidents in the Saint's life took place not on Iona itself, but at the nearby island monastery of Hinba, which some scholars have identified with Eilach an Naoimh.
Dunbar says the existing remains include two churches, the earlier built of drystone masonry within a cashel-type enclosure, two graveyards, a puzzling complex of domestic buildings, a barn, a kiln, and a double 'beehive' hut, the latter comprising a pair of circular cells which abut against each other and communicate by means of a short passage in the mid-wall. But, he says, it is difficult to assess how many of these buildings belong to the Early Christian period.
Bryce compares the earlier chapel with Irish examples but was unable to examine building 'B' thoroughly and regarded it as a probable chapel. He classified the remaining buildings, including the 'beehive' cells, as being of indeterminate date without excavation, but thought the 'Abbot's House' and kiln to be relatively recent. In 1859 bones and a skull were found when Building 'A' was rebuilt as a sheepfold.
J G Dunbar 1966; T H Bryce and G A F Knight 1933
Information from OS.