Monument record MHG4936 - Cnoc na Cille

Thumbnail Photo - shows church remains .

See Report 1223
Glendale, Skye - Water Mains Renewal Project
S Farrell, Feb 200
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NG15SE 2 1992 5162.

(NG 1992 5162) Burial ground (NR) (site of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Cnoc na Cille: a hill at Husabost containing monastic remains.....the church is a large hill sic with an inner compound containing two other buildings. These have been rebuilt once or twice, the last time about 1850. The larger of the buildings seems to have contained a refectory or a large hall or two other rooms, subsequently made into five. The smaller was used as sleeping quarters, etc, etc. (The information in these letters would seem to be of very doubtful value and authenticity). '.....at Husabost ....the road passes a ruined barn, once the chapel of St. Francis, and a forgotten graveyard, which is curious in that the tradition places it on a mound or dun, Cnoc na Cille, like the old burial cairns, rather than in the usual patch of low ground.
Information contained in Letters from J Gayland to OS, 24 October and 28 November 1955

The group of ruined buildings at Husabost, occupying the site of the old burial ground, comprise stables, byre, and threshing-mill, formerly a chapel. This latter building, still known locally as a chapel, measures internally 12.5m by 8.5m, and is orientated almost due N-S. It is of rubble masonry with two large pointed windows extending nearly to the wall-heads in each of the E and W walls, and a pointed doorway with pointed window above at the N end. The S end has a lancet, now blocked. It was converted into a mill by putting a central partition down the long axis, blocking the top half of the windows, and inserting an upper floor (since removed); access to this upper storey was by outside steps at the S end. The mill machinery was installed in 1913 and was in use until about 1930.
Very little information could be gained about this church but a local informant (Information from Major-General Stuart-Martin, Husabost) said it was dedicated to St Francis, and abandoned in 1843.
Gaylard's references to monastic connections can be ignored.
Visited by OS (C F W) 4 May 1961.