Reference
Date 2001
Event ID 1101284
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1101284
This is one of the smallest of the group of wooded islands midway along the 20km length of Loch Maree, and lies 250m from the N shore. It is almost triangular, measuring about 200m by 170m, and rises to a central summit of about 30m which is crowned by a burial-ground. The island and loch take their names from St Maelrubha, and the island was resorted to until the 19th century for the cure of insanity, effected by immersion in the loch and visiting the holy well, now dried up, at the S shore (a). An oak tree beside the well, now dead, continues to have coins and metal objects driven into it (b). The burial-ground is oval, measuring about 36m by 27m within a low turf-covered stone wall. It contains a number of simple gravemarkers and recumbent slabs. Two of these are cross-marked and are identified in local tradition as the graves of a Norwegian prince and princess (c).
(1) Rectangular slab of Torridonian sandstone, lacking the lower left corner and measuring 1.44m by 0.59m. It bears an outline Latin cross with semicircular armpits, 0.88m high and 0.46m in span. A second transom, 0.17m above the foot of the shaft, has a span of 0.26m and arms 55mm high. This is an unusual feature, and the outline may have been altered by recutting, but the upper part of the cross is of early character. (A Mitchell 1863, 252-3; J H Dixon 1886, 10; J R Baldwin 1994, 124).
(2) Roughly tapered slab of Torridonian sandstone with pointed head, broken across and irregularly broken at the foot. It measures 1.26m by 0.57m in maximum width. It bears an outline cross-of-arcs, 0.28m in diameter and with open interspaces between the arms, which rises from a straight shaft. This is supported on a T-shaped pedestal which resembles the lower transom on stone (1) but is clearly divided from the shaft. The edges of the shaft and base show large pock-marks, but the V-section grooves have been finished with a sharp blade.
Footnotes:
(a) T Pennant 1774, 1, 330; NSA, 14 (Ross and Cromarty), 91; W Reeves 1862, 286-9; A Mitchell 1863, 251-63; J H Dixon 1886, 150-6, 397, 410-11. The loch appears in early sources as 'Loch Ewe' (Blaeu's Atlas (Hebrides); W J Watson 1904, 239).
(b) J R Baldwin 1994, fig. on p.126.
(c) A Mitchell 1863, 253; J H Dixon 1886, 7-10.
A Mitchell 1863, 252-3; J H Dixon 1886, 10; J R Baldwin 1994, 124; I Fisher 2001, 90.
