Monument record MHG285 - Chapel, Cill Mhairi

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NM 5312 6999 (40m by 40m) (Buffered by site type)
Map sheet NM56NW
Old County ARGYLL
Civil Parish ARDNAMURCHAN
Geographical Area LOCHABER

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

See assoc. docs. File (photos).
J Aitken : 14/03/02.

Chapel (Site) and Burial-ground, Cill Mhairi: There are no visible remains of the chapel that formerly existed on this site, unless its position is marked by a shapeless mound at the centre of the burial-ground. The surrounding dry-stone wall, which is of 19th-century date, encloses a sub-oval area measuring 37m from E to W by 27m from N to S, and may follow the line of an earlier boundary. The earliest identifiable tombstones are of 19th-century date.
In the burial-ground there is a fragment of a free-standing ringed cross which is at present used as a headstone. The ring measures 0.58m in diameter externally, and the undecorated shaft, which is broken off 0.50m below the head, is 0.09m in thickness.
RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972.

All that can be seen of the chapel are the amorphous turf-covered footings of the S wall, about 17.0m long, in the centre of the burial ground. The baptismal font described above lies within the area of the chapel. The graveyard, known locally as Cill Mhairi, is still used, and the broken wheel cross survives.
Surveyed at 1:10,560. Visited by OS (N K B) 8 June 1970.

Only faint traces of the foundations of this pre-Reformation chapel remain, within the old graveyard. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Most of the gravestones are uninscribed; Donaldson found the head of a solid wheel cross there, but could not find the font, Tobar Baistidh, said to be there. It measures 2ft long, with a bowl-shaped depression.
Name Book 1872; M E M Donaldson 1923.

Cill Mhairi (NR) (Remains) OS 6"map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1902)

Sources/Archives (4)

  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Donaldson, M E M. 1923. Wanderings in the Western Highlands and Islands. 2nd, rev.. 432-3.
  • --- Text/Report: RCAHMS. 1980. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona). . 134, No. 270; fig. 164.
  • --- Text/Publication/Article/Newspaper Article: Rixson, D. 1982. Tantalising clues in an Arisaig burial ground. The Oban Times.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Name Book (County). Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey. Book No. 61, 30.

Finds (1)

Protected Status/Designation

Related Monuments/Buildings (2)

Related Events/Activities (0)

Record last edited

Jan 28 2008 12:00AM

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