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Islay, Kiells, Cill Chaluim Chille

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

Site Name Islay, Kiells, Cill Chaluim Chille

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

Canmore ID 38114

Site Number NR46NW 2

NGR NR 41447 68623

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38114

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

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Killarow And Kilmeny
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR46NW 2 4144 6861.

(NR 4145 6860) Cill Challuim Chille (Nr) Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

The name 'Cill Challuim Chille' applies to a burial ground, still in use in 1878 (ONB 1878). At its centre are the remains of a chapel, dedicated to St. Columba. Lamont (1972) illustrates a medieval grave-slab with foliaceous ornament, from the burial ground, but states that it is impossible to date it closely, although Graham (1895) suggests it is early 14th century. Watson gives the name as 'Cill Chaluim Chille'.

Name Book 1878; W D Lamont 1972; W J Watson 1926; R C Graham 1895.

Presentations were still being made to the chaplainry in 1542.

Orig Paroch Scot 1854.

Cill Chaluim Chille (name verified), a graveyard still used occasionally.

The ruins of the chapel within it survive to a maximum height of 2.0m. The grave-slab illustrated by Lamont lies immediately south of the chapel.

Visited by OS (N K B) 5 April 1979.

Activities

Field Visit (June 1981)

NR 414 686. This chapel stands within its burial-ground immediately to the N of the village of Kiells. The building measures 7.6m from E to W by 3.9m transversely within walls up to 0.9m in thickness. The N wall stands almost to its original height, but the remaining walls now rise only to an average height of 1.5m. The masonry is of local random rubble with quoins of the same material, but there is some evidence to suggest that the doorway and window margins, now almost entirely removed, were composed of buff-coloured sandstone. The entrance was situated towards the W end of the S wall, and the to each other towards the E end of the building. The burial-ground is enclosed by a wall of comparatively recent date.

The chapel, which was dedicated to St Columbia (Gaelic, Calum Cille), appears to be of late medieval date. Presentations to the chaplainry, then held jointly with that of the nearby chapel on Eilean Mor, Finlaggan (RCAHMS 1984, No. 404), and recorded in 1503 and 1542. At that period the patronage ol both chapels belonged to the Crown as successor to the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. The lands belonging to St Columba's Chapel, namely Knocklearoch (Knokclerich) and Balleoschane, are mentioned in crown rentals of 1507 and 1509 (en.1). The settlement of Kilchoimkill, but not the chapel, is indicated on Pont's map, but it is included in Martin's late 17th-century list of Islay churches (en.2).

The following monuments are in the burial-ground. A free standing cross of late medieval date (RCAHMS 1984, No. 358) stands about 300m ENE of the chapel, probably in its original position.

Medieval:

(1) Tapered slab bordered by triple plain mouldings 2.02m long by 0.52m wide at the head. At the top there has been a narrow panel for an inscription, now completely obliterated; in its place is a later inscription, DME 1703. Below the panel is a galley with furled sail, and then a single-hand sword with lobated pommel and inclined quillons, flanked on each side by two intertwined plant-stems linked at the to a pair of opposed animals. At the foot of the slab is a casket and a pair of shears (GAGM cast no.182; Steer and Bannerman pl. 5B; Graham pl. i, 1). Iona School, 14th-15th century.

Post-Reformation:

(2) A headstone bearing on the front a commemorative inscription to Archibald Anderson in 'Kilcomkill', who died in 1707, and on the reverse carved emblems of mortality.

(3) A small round-topped stone commemorating John Young, a sailor from Greenock who died in 1708.

(4) Recumbent slab of sandstone bearing an inscription commemorating Malcolm Duffie who died in 1748.

Visited June 1981

RCAHMS 1984

Measured Survey (1981)

RCAHMS surveyed the chapel at Cill Chaluim Cille at a scale of 1:100. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 161C).

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