Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 567010
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/567010
Howmore (An t'-Hogh Mor), 12 th/13 th century (if Norse origin, haugr = burial mound) Occupying a prehistoric site and possibly dating back to the 6th century (an Early Christian graveslab lies among the ruins), this fragmentary group of two medieval churches and two surviving chapels is one of the most important religious sites in the Outer Hebrides. It became an important seat of learning during the Lordship of the Isles and was the burial place of the Clanranald chiefs after the Reformation. By the end of the 17th century the buildings were probably ruinous. Several burial enclosures and the kirkyard wall, mid-late 19th century.
Standing among graves on rushy ground formerly surrounded by marshes, the beautifully weathered lumps of mortared rubble comprise: Teampall Mor/Mhoire (St. Mary), 13 th century, the former parish church, now reduced to a section of its east gable, pierced by two lancets and a pair of aumbries; Caibeal Dhiarmaid (Dermot's Chapel), a smaller church to its east with only a lancetted east gable still standing; Caibeal Dubhghaill (Dugall's Chapel), just outside the walled enclosure, a small, thick-walled cell with steep gables and deep splayed jambs; and Caibeal Chlann 'ic Ailein (Clanranald's chapel) to the north east of the site, believed to be a post-Reformation structure, c.1574, although two earlier phases (one pre-13 th century, possibly contemporary with the construction of Caibeals Dhiarmaid and Dubhghaill) have recently been identified. Within lies a fragment of stone found nearby, with 13 th-century dogtooth carving.
Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk