Field Visit
Date May 1974
Event ID 1121966
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1121966
Cladh an Dìsirt, Iona
These remains, which lie about 400m NE of Iona Abbey and 100m from the shore of the Sound of Iona, comprise the footings of a small rectangular building lying within a walled or embanked enclosure. The internal dimensions of this building, which may have been a chapel, were ascertained by excavations carried out in 1876 to be about 7·9m from WNW to ESE by 4·2m transversely within walls 0·6m in thickness.
The SW side of the enclosure is defined by a dry-stone dyke of fairly recent construction which now serves as a field-boundary. Just beyond the NW end of this dyke there may be seen two massive granite gateposts flanking what has evidently been an entrance to the enclosure. These posts were formerly spanned by a correspondingly massive lintel, which was destroyed some time during the third quarter of the 19th century, and the structure was mistakenly identified by Pococke and Pennant as 'the remains of a Druid Temple' or 'an evident Cromleh'. Traces of earlier footings are also visible at the SE end of the dyke , indicating that the enclosure wall formerly continued in that direction. The NE and SE limits of the enclosure are not now traceable, but part of a low turf-covered bank survives on the NW side. The sw portion of the enclosure is traversed by a comparatively modern track leading to Port an Disirt. Close to the point at which this track skirts the NE corner of the chapel there is a small freshwater spring, while a second spring rises just beyond the NE corner of the enclosure.
The name Cladh an Dìsirt ('the burial-ground of the hermitage') suggests that these remains stand on or close to the site of the ‘dìsirt’ or place of retreat whose superior was named, with other officials of the pre-Benedictine community on Iona, in the Annals of Ulster for 1164. The alternative name Cladh lain (‘St John's burial ground') may indicate that the chapel, which is probably of 12th-century or later date, was dedicated to St John. An Early Christian stone described elsewhere (RCAHMS 1982, No. 6, 60) was found in this locality about 1870, and Drummond mentions a cross-fragment which cannot be identified.
RCAHMS 1982, visited May 1974
