Archaeology Notes
Date 1970
Event ID 699621
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/699621
NR99SW 7 9347 9079.
(NR 9347 9078) Chapel and Burial Ground (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map (1900)
The site of "Caipel Bhred", a chapel dedicated to St Bride (probably St Bride of Kildare c. 523), the remains of which may be contained in a small rectangular building whose unbonded E side, with traces of carving on flat stones, suggests a chapel altered to a mausoleum. To the N of the building is what may be part of a cross - a broken erect stone with a central raised portion.
The oval graveyard, which contains recent burials, is enclosed by a wall.
There is said to be a healing well with a carved stone and local traditions, but the well was not found unless it is a wet hollow about 12' across at the foot of the scarp SE of the graveyard. It may have a low wall but there is no carved stone, nor were any local traditions collected, apart from the usual one, associated with sites dedicated to St Bride, that it was a nunnery.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964; Name Book 1866
The burial ground wall, with the 5.0m square yard (? mausoleum) in the centre, is modern, although the latter has probably been built on the site of the chapel. There are numerous early 18th century and several earlier crude gravestones in the burial ground which is still in use. No trace of the healing well was found.
Visited by OS (RD) 2 April 1970
