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Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 563529
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/563529
Trumpan. Cille Chonain, medieval, in use until the 16th century. Lichened ruin of St. Conan's church, its long north wall with arched doorway and east gable surviving intact. Once the focus of a medieval village, it stands today in solitude on its windy platform looking out to the slab-like profile of Loch Dunvegan's western headland. Some late medieval carved graveslabs survive - one inside the church depicting a claymore with foliage and animals; another in its encircling walled graveyard depicts a priest, cross and chalice.
[In 1578 a band of Clanranald marauders from South Uist burnt the worshipping MacLeod congregation of Cille Chonain in retribution for the massacre (said to have taken place in 1577) of the entire population of Eigg, suffocated to death while taking refuge in a cave. Fellow Macleods hastened to Ardmore Bay with their charmed fairy flag, and hardly one Macdonald escaped the ensuing slaughter. They were buried by a dyke which was pushed over on top of their corpses, hence the name of this skirmish - The Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke.]
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2007. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
