Publication Account
Date 1990
Event ID 1019664
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019664
Extensive alterations were undertaken in 1759 ('repaired, or almost re-built') and 1882 (J Honeyman, architect), but comparison of the narrow rectangular plan with other early 13th-century churches suggests that Kilfinan incorporates remains of the church granted to Paisley Abbey by an ancestor of the Lamonts c. 1230-40. If so, along with Lochgilhead (Cowal), it is one of the only two medieval parish churches still usd for worship in Argyll. The Lamont N burial-aisle of 1633 may be remodelling of a late medieval chapel (cf Killean, Kintyre).
The collection of carved stones in the Lamont aisle includes three Early Christian cross-marked stones, one of them a massive double-sided slab with snak-and-boss and animal ornament (?9th or 10th century). Most of the medieval graveslabs, now very worn, belong to the Loch Awe school, as does a large broken cross with an inscription HEC EST CRUX PATRICII MAC NELUS ('This is the cross of Patrick MacNeilage'). Two elaborate Lamont family monuments (1706, 1712) are lcoated in the aisle, and other characteristic 18th-century monuments may be seen in the churchyard.
Information from ‘RCAHMS Excursion guide 1990: Commissioners' field excursion, Argyll, 7-9 May 1990’.
