Monument record MHG2614 - Cemetery, Cille-Chuimein

Cille-Chuimein (Burial Ground) (NAT)

OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

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'Inverness District West Monumental Inscriptions', pre 1855

Monumental inscription survey completed by Alastair G Beattie & Margaret H Beattie . The survey may not include inscription information after 1855 and each inscription transcribed does not give the full details that appear on the stones, abbreviations used. Some ommissions and inacuraciesmay be encountered. First published 1993, reprinted 1994.


This large burial ground near Fort Augustus has only a very small bit of wall that might be the remains of a church that once stood here. It has, however, many more inscribed stones dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries than is common in this area thanks to the influence of the incomers associated with the Fort. Kilchuimen was the name of the nearby village before the Fort, after which it is now named, and built.

J Aitken : 20/12/02

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A grave yard, about 200 years old; people are still interred in it. The oldest tomb stone in it is about 170 years old. There was never a church in or nearer it than the Church of Fort Augustus (about 1 mile away). Its name originated from a chief of the Cummin or Comyns being buried there.

Name Book 1871


This grave yard is still in use, and contains grave stones dating back to the early 18th century. There are no traces of a church.

Visited by OS (N K B) 28 April 1964


This burial ground bears a name which suggests the former existence of a church dedicated to Cummein, Abbot of Iona, who died in 669. His 'seat', 'Suidhe Chuimein' lies at NH 449 105. (W J Watson 1926)

The nearby village, now Fort Augustus, and the parish were both formerly named Kilchuimin, obviously from this site.

Until 1614 Kilchuimin was an independent parish (H Scott 1926), presumably with a parish church, but about 1630 there was no trace of a church in this graveyard, although the site is referred to as "ane Church toune". This, together with the finding of medieval cists at NH 379 089 (NH 30 NE 7), could suggest the moving of the church and graveyard to a more convenient spot in the medieval period, but with the old graveyard not falling completely out of use, and still retaining its former name.

W Macfarlane 1907

A photograph of the Smith memorial in this cemetery was submitted to the HER by Mary Garlick, a descendant of Sarah Smith nee McDonell. <1>

Photographs were contributed by Martin Briscoe via the Highland HER Flickr group.<2>