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Colonsay, Upper Kilchattan, Cill Mhoire

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

Site Name Colonsay, Upper Kilchattan, Cill Mhoire

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

Canmore ID 37878

Site Number NR39NE 6

NGR NR 37738 95792

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37878

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Colonsay And Oronsay
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR39NE 6 3774 9578.

(NR 3775 9577) Cill Mhoire (NR) (In Ruins) Burial Ground (NR)

OS 6" map (1900)

The remains, little more than the foundation, of Kilmary (W Stevenson 1881) or Kilmory (J de V Loder 1935), a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary situated within a burial ground containing numerous half-buried uninscribed gravestones.

The chapel has stood E-W, measuring about 28' x 20' with walls 3' thick composed of stones and earth. It has been reduced to ground level and all loose stones have been removed. Local tradition says that the chapel was founded by monks of Iona, and that the burial ground was used for unbaptised children after it had fallen out of use for ordinary burials. (Stevenson appears to suggest an association with Maelrubha and in the 'Kilmary' form of the name, this would appear to be quite possible). Small cairns erected over the burials, with a standing stone at head

and foot are visible in the graveyard.

Visible on aerial photographs (RAF/106G/Scot/UK 34: 3007-8, flown 1946).

S Grieve 1923; Name Book 1878

NR 3774 9579: The chapel measures internally 6.4m E-W x 3.5m with an entrance in the W. A large recumbent slab at the E end may be part of the altar. The sub-oval burial ground contains several earth- fast stones, but no cairns remain. Cultivation has reduced the wall on the W where there are two sub-oval structures of probably later date.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 16 April 1974

Activities

Field Visit (May 1977)

NR 377 957. The remains of this chapel and its associated enclosure occupy a site on the N side of the highway at Upper Kilchattan, about 90m ENE of the Baptist Chapel and about 1.6 km NE of the medieval parish church (NR39NE 7; RCAHMS 1984, No. 364). The site was evidently dedicated to St Mary.

The chapel is an oblong round-angled structure measuring internally about 7m from E to W by 4m. The walls, which survive to an average height of 0.7m, are over 1m in thickness and are of drystone rubble construction; the location of the entrance is not clearly defined. A large recumbent slab is laid in the position of an altar at the E end of the interior.

The building stands within an approximately D-shaped enclosure which is open-ended to the N and in the E sector forms a scarped platform about 0.7m high. The N and W areas of the enclosure show evidence of ploughing, and there are field-banks and structural remains of indeterminate character immediately to the W. The 'numerous half-buried uninscribed gravestones' mentioned in an earlier account' appear to be merely natural surface boulders.

RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1977.

Measured Survey (11 May 1977)

RCAHMS surveyed the chapel at Cill Mhoire, Upper Kilchattan, at a scale of 1:100. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 26P), with a site plan including the burial-ground reproduced at a smaller scale (fig. 166F).

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