Archaeology Notes

Event ID 656771

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/656771

NF75SE 2 7822 5490

For Tobar Chaluim Chille (NF 7820 5475), see NF75SE 3.

(NF 7822 5490) Teampull Chaluim Chille (NR) (Ruins of).

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The ruin of Teampull Chaluim Chille stands on a slight eminence in a marsh 1/4 mile south-east of Balivanich, Benbecula. The church is oblong in plan, and, by a later extension, two-chambered. It is 47 1/2ft by 14 1/2ft internally with gables 3 1/2ft thick. By 1924, the eastern gable was reduced to foundation level, the western to the height of the lintel, and the lateral walls to an average of 8ft.

On a knoll west of the teampull are some indeterminate foundations.

RCAHMS 1928.

Church of St. Columba. The older part may have been built under the direction of St. Columba (c AD. 521-97) it is certainly older than the end of the 8th century. The east end probably dates to the end of the 14th century.

F W L Thomas and T S Muir 1873.

The foundations to the west were, in 1855, about 30ft long, and 'may have been a chapel'.

T S Muir 1885.

The church is as described by RCAHMS. Three buildings can be traced to the N, W and SW of the church. They consist of grass-covered rubble foundations, c.1.7m wide and 0.4m high in the best preserved example.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (J T T) 27 May 1965.