Lismore, St Moluag's Cathedral, interior view from east.

Description Lismore, St Moluag's Cathedral, interior view from east.

Date 7/7/1882

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

Catalogue Number AG 1705

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 742999

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 internal arrangements, which probably date from the mid-18th century, include narrow timber galleries on the north (left) and east (right) sides of the church, supported by slender columns and decorated with stencilled panels. A long communion table with benches runs down the centre, and there is further stencilled decoration on a dado rail around the walls. Erskine Beveridge's photograph provides an invaluable record of the internal arrangement of Victorian country parish church. Although it was still common practice in the late 19th century to have a long central communion table, in 1900 the interior was reoriented towards the west end of the church, and the pulpit and a new communion table installed there. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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