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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017457
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017457
The foundations of this small rectangular chapel lie close to the coastal road and the shore on the old raised beach at Corwall Port. Oriented east-west, it has a south doorway and there are three buttresses on each of the side-walls, one in the centre and one against each corner. Excavation revealed evidence of a stone bench, possibly encased in wood, set against the inner eastern face of the south wall. The mortared masonry includes use of large upright stones set on edge to form foundation-courses and door-jambs. The building is tightly enclosed within the footings of a drystone boundary wall, and a stone-lined well lies outside, close to the entrance-gateway in the roadside dyke.
In 1684 this building was described as 'a little ruinous chapel call'd by the country people Chapel Finzian'. It probably takes its name from St Finian of Moville (Co. Down, Ulster), who was educated at Whithom and died in about 579. The site may mark an episode in the life of the saint, and it may have been a landing place for Irish pilgrims to St Ninian's shrine.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
