Reference
Date 2001
Event ID 582032
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/582032
The supposed site of the chapel of Kilmachalmaig (1) is situated in a field a few metres W of East St Colmac farm, on the N side of the low-lying valley that links the E and W coasts of Bute between Kames Bay and Ettrick Bay. The name incorporates an affectionate form of the common Irish name Colman, and a cross-slab of Early Christian type stands a few metres to the SW.
The stone has a vertical W face but is D-shaped in section, tapering in thickness from 0.4m at the foot to a mere point. The W face, which is round-headed but broken at the top left, measures 1.44m in visible height and tapers from a width of 0.48m at the foot. At the top there is a circle 0.4m in diameter enclosing an equal-armed cross potent with wedge-shaped terminals. The outline of the cross is defined by a bead-moulding, and at the centre there is a roundel formed by a double moulding with three spirals emerging from the inner member. The constriction of the lower arm bears traces of ornament, identified by Allen as a square key-pattern (2), and the vertical sides of the expansion have spirals flanking a central sunk panel. This arm is continued as a simple shaft, 0.77m high and 75mm wide, which is formed by two deeply-cut grooves and is open at the foot.
Footnotes:
(1) Blaeu's Atlas (Bute) gives the form 'Kilmachalmak'. The chapel was demolished for building-material about the end of the 18th century (Hewison 1893, 1, 116-17). For the discovery of stone 'coffins' and other burials in the 19th century see Wilson, op.cit., 70-1; Name Book, Bute, No.5, p.18.
(2) Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 412.
Muir 1861, 124; Stuart 1867, 30 and pl.56; Muir 1885, 7; Hewison 1893, 1, 116-17; Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 411-12; Marshall 1955, 58 and pl. on p.2; Cross 1984, B43.
I Fisher 2001, 81-2.
