Canna, St Columba's Chapel. View of sculptured stone.

Description Canna, St Columba's Chapel. View of sculptured stone.

Date 20/9/1895

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

Catalogue Number SC 747818

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of IN 885

Scope and Content Sculptured Cross-shaft, A' Chill, Canna, Highland, from the rear The remains of an Early Christian chapel dedicated to St Columba stand at A' Chill in the south-east of Canna, the outermost island of a group in the Inner Hebrides known as the Small Isles. Fragments of a sculptured sandstone cross-shaft, possibly dating from the 7th century, were discovered in the graveyard surrounding the chapel in the early 1890s, and were photographed by Erskine Beveridge in 1895. This rear section of the cross-shaft, measuring 61cm in length and 36cm in width, is fractured. The upper part is carved in low relief with a square of interlaced-work set diagonally, and subdivided by a series of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines into smaller squares and triangles. The lower part is filled with a symmetrically interlaced pattern formed by the bodies of four snakes. The snakes, seen from above, have large bulging eyes, fish-like tails and long, prominent snouts. The head of each snake bites the body of its neighbour, and their four tails are brought together in the centre, two on each side, in a cruciform (cross-shaped) motif. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/747818

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap