Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Islay, Gleann Na Gaoidh

Burial Ground (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval)

Site Name Islay, Gleann Na Gaoidh

Classification Burial Ground (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Gleannagaoidh; Glen Na Gaoith

Canmore ID 37356

Site Number NR25SW 1

NGR NR 21167 53620

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37356

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Kilchoman
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Activities

Field Visit (September 1975)

The remains of this chapel stand within a burial-ground on the S bank of the Abhainn Gleann na Gaoith a short distance above its debouchment into Loch Indaal. The building measures about 5m from E to W by 2.9m transversely within walls some 1.3m in thickness. These walls, which appear to be laid in clay mortar, stand to a maximum height of 1.2m. The entrance is placed towards the W end of the N wall, facing the entrance to the burial-ground. A low turf-grown footings of an altar. The burial-ground, whose configuration was evidently dictated by the nature of the site, is of elongated oblong plan, measuring about 35m by 11m within a drystone wall some 1.4m in thickness. The entrance was situated at the N corner. Immediately to the SE of the chapel there may be seen a roughly-built stone platform measuring about 2.8m by 2m over all. At the centre of the platform, which may mark a grave, there is a circular depression possibly formed by recent excavation.

Carved Stones.

Two stones of probable Early Christian date (numbers I and 2) (NR25SW 1.01 and 1.02) lie in the burial-ground, while a third (NR25SW 1.03), formerly in the ruined chapel, is now in the Museum of Islay Life, Port Charlotte.

Visited September 1975

RCAHMS 1984

Measured Survey (4 September 1975)

RCAHMS surveyed the chapel and burial-ground at 1:100. The plan of the chapel was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 26R) with a site plan of the chapel and burial-ground (fig. 183A).

Field Visit (2 May 1978)

A ruined chapel measuring 8.0m by 5.0m over drytone walling 1.0m wide and 1.2m high. It is oriented ESE-WNW and has an entrance 0.6m wide in the north-east. The wall of the burial ground is clearly visible on all but the north side where it has presumably collapsed into a burn. It encloses an area measuring 37.0m by 17.0m and where best preserved it is 1.5m wide and 0.8m high.

Within the burial ground are the 'cell' to the south of the chapel, two small stony mounds, possibly graves, and two of the three crosses described above (the third is in the Islay Museum at Port Charlotte). The 'cell' appears as a disturbed stony mound 3.5m in diameter and cannot now be positively classified. There is a groove visible on one face of a flat slab near one of the crosses. There is no evidence of a lintel grave.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (BS) 2 May 1978

Desk Based Assessment (1978)

NR25SW 1 2116 5361.

(NR 2118 5361) Chapel (NR) (In Ruins) Burial Ground (NR)

OS 6" map (1900)

The remains of a chapel, of whose history nothing is known, with its burial ground and three early sculptured crosses. The chapel, which lies NW-SE, is now in ruins but appears to have measured 17ft by 8ft within a wall whose entrance is in the NE. A 'cell' 6ft by 4ft across the interior lies immediately SW of the south corner. The crosses probably date from the 7th to 10th centuries. One is a roughly shaped cross, now incomplete and the others are cross-slabs, one bearing a skeuomorphic, incised Celtic-ring cross, and the other a Celtic-ring cross in semi-relief with crosslets. The last is probably 9th to 10th century and, if it has always been at this site, it indicates that the burial-ground, if not the chapel continued in use well into this period. Until it was recently moved the slab covered what Mr Bruce, an authority on Manx antiquities, suggested might be a 'lintel grave'. Another grooved stone was also noted. These stones were first discovered by Mrs I Ramsay in 1959 but it is said that according to tradition they were transferred from the chapel on Orsay (NR15SE 1) when the lighthouse was built in 1825.

W D Lamont 1972; P Dobbins 1959; F Celoria 1959; Name Book 1878

Information from OS.

Sources: W D Lamont 1972; P Dobbins 1959; F Celoria 1959; Name Book 1878; RCAHMS 1984

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions