Monument record MHG31405 - Cille Mhuire, graveyard

NH57NW 2 5222 7721.

(NH 522 772) Cille Mhuire {NR} (In Ruins)
OS 6"map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1907)

The church is 40' long by 18' broad, within walls 4' thick. The date of construction is not known.
NSA 1845 (Rev. Alex. Flyter). <1>

Remains of church, built of mortared masonry, measure 14.3 m. E-W by 7m. N-S, over walls 0.9 m. thick.
W gable remains entire and other three sides vary in height from 1.8 m. to 3m. The doorway is in S side, at W end, and there is also a narrow slit window in this wall. Inside are two flat grave slabs and a small stone font. The burial ground is enclosed by a low drystone dyke. It is covered thickly with trees and bushes, and only two modern grave-stones were seen.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 6 May 1963.

"Spelling 'Mhuire' is accepted locally," and conforms to spelling of name of glen 'Gleann Mhuire' which has been verified by School of Scottish Studies. OS revision 16 August 1966.

Cille Mhuire {NR} (remains of) OS 6"map, (1970)

No change. Visited by OS (JB) 18 November 1976.

This church at N end of Loch Morie is a single-celled structure measuring 14.25m by 6.95m overall. It stands to gable height at W end and there are a slit window and a door in S wall. The window is splayed internally and has no dressings, but door is dressed with chamfered rybats, top course of which is different to the basal courses. Two partially legible table tombstones are situated inside church, immediately E of entrance.
Built into outer face of S wall, to W of door, 1.7m above ground, there is a four petalled flower sculpted in low relief on a piece of red sandstone. The surface is partly broken and it is also partly covered in harling. A low bank 4.75m thick, inside a stone facing, encloses graveyard and church.
1549 Queen Mary gave Sir James Buschart Chapel of Towy (or Tolly) in diocese of Ross, which had been made vacant by death of incumbent (OPS 1855, 473). The chaplaincy of Tolly or Kildermorie cannot be traced any earlier.
1st ed. OS 6" map (Ross-shire (1880),52) depicts some enclosures and unroofed buildings on NW side of graveyard bank. A heap of rubble is visible in this location but no structures were discernible.
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 15 November 1989 <2>

The burial ground at Achanalt was visited during the Highland Kirkyards project, run by Highland Buildings Preservation Trust. Rural ruined church within stone walled graveyard with stunning backdrop of lochs and mountains. There are not very many visible gravestones within the graveyard, but the ground inside the boundary wall is much higher than the surrounding land, so may contain many earlier burials. There may also be flat slabs overgrown by grass as there are a couple of stones of this type in evidence. The graveyard is encircled by a stone wall and contains many mature trees, in contrast to the land surrounding it which is grazing ground, making the burial ground site very obvious in the landscape. <3><4>