Lismore, St Moluag's Cathedral. Interior view from west.

Description Lismore, St Moluag's Cathedral. Interior view from west.

Date 7/7/1882

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number AG 1704

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 742998

Scope and Content Lismore Parish Church, Argyll & Bute Lismore Parish Church occupies part of an early 14th-century building that served as the cathedral church of the medieval diocese of Argyll and the Isles. When the cathedral fell into ruins after the Reformation, the choir was used as a place of worship. The present building is a result of a reconstruction of the choir in 1749, and, since that time, it has continued to serve a local congregation as the parish church. The Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed the interior in 1882. The pulpit, an octagonal pitch-pine box, stands against the south wall, and provides the focal point of the interior. Immediately to the right is an early 14th-century round-headed doorway which remained in use for the minister, and to the left, one of the three round arches of the medieval sedilia, seats for the clergy that were normally found on the south wall of the choir. The internal arrangements include a long central communion table with benches (bottom right) and a wide timber gallery, supported by slender columns, on the west wall. Several features of the medieval choir remain in situ, notably the sedilia, the piscina, a basin provided with a drain for washing the vessels used in a Mass, and the south door. All of these are executed in Ardtornish sandstone, and their architectural detail constitutes the principal evidence for dating the original building from the early 14th century. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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