Standing Building Recording

Date 15 June 2014 - 16 June 2014

Event ID 1014865

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1014865

NF 7581 3647 Recent PhD research, 15–16 June 2014, sought to characterise the lime mortars and masonry of the various surviving buildings of the chapel site of Howmore. Within the Clan Ranald Chapel, two contrasting shell-lime mortars were identified, wherein the mortar binding the masonry of the recess at the W end of the N wall, and the N end of the W wall, was found to contrast with that in the rest of the building.

This suggests that this NW feature is a later addition to the building. However, further scrutiny also revealed a substantial previously unrecorded lintel-roofed cavity forming part of the tomb recess to the W, within and beneath the NW corner of the building at current ground levels. With this in mind, the thicker masonry of the W end of the N wall of the building probably represents the structure of a Clan Ranald tomb of some importance. This structure may relate to the armorial stone found on this site and further structural comparisons with the 17th-century Clan Ranald recess-tomb at Arisaig are also apposite. Moreover, the in situ dog-tooth moulded stone is bonded to the masonry of this tomb structure. Both this stone and the matching ex situ dog-tooth moulded stone lying in the chapel, have 90° beds suggesting both are quoins rather than arch stones.

Further masonry details with imported geological provenances were noted within this and other buildings during this survey, and these have implications for our understanding of the development of the wider site. This site will appear as a case study in the contributor’s forthcoming PhD (arch) thesis at the University of Edinburgh.

Archive: Historic Scotland, RCAHMS and University of Edinburgh

Funder: University of Edinburgh

Mark Thacker – University of Edinburgh

(Source: DES)