Archaeology Notes
Event ID 724592
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/724592
NX06NW 7 0339 6583 and 0328 6578
(NX 0339 6583) Kilmorie Chapel (NR) (Site of)
(NX 0328 6578) St. Mary's Well (NR)
OS 6" map (1957).
See also NX06NW 3.
The published site is the supposed site (Name Book 1847) of Kilmorie Chapel, and does not seem to accord with Symson's description in 1684, when the chapel was wholly ruinous, within a little croft. At the side of this Chapel there is a well to which people superstitiously resort (W Macfarlane 1907).
Fragmentary remains of the Chapel, which is said to have been destroyed at the Reformation, were visible in 1837 (NSA 1845) but by 1847 (Name Book 1847) no trace remained.
St Mary's Well is covered by a stone slab which is said to have had an inscription, and the water is piped off (E M H M'Kerlie 1916).
A fine Celtic cross-slab was removed from the site of the Chapel about the beginning of the 18th century, and is now in the grounds of Corsewall House (NX06NW 3).
If W Nicolaisen (School of Scottish Studies) is correct in his belief that the prefix 'Kil' went out of use about 850 AD, and Charles Thomas (Leicester University) is correct in stating that the dedication to the Virgin Mary was not introduced into western Europe until the 12th c, the name 'Kilmorie' cannot be an original dedication to the Virgin Mary, as previously believed.
Reeves states that the corruption of St Maelrubha's name has in many instances caused the patronage of ancient churches under Celtic foundation to be transferred to the Virgin Mary instead of St Maelrubha (642-722 AD), but Maelrubha is not usually associated with this part of the country.
(Information from A MacDonald, MoPBW, 10 August 1967)
W Reeves 1862; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903
No trace of a chapel could be found at the OS site or the site described by Symson (in Macfarlane), and no further information could be found except that the site is known locally as that of Kilmorie Chapel. The well is as described. The cross-slab is in the garden of Corsewall House at NX 0324 6902.
Visited by OS (RD) 23 February 1968
There are no visible remains of the pre-Reformation chapel which stood at Kilmorie. During the early 18th-century an Early Medieval cross-slab, elaborately sculptured on both faces, was removed from the site of the chapel and now stands 100m E of Corsewall House (NX 0324 6902). On one face the slab (1.8m long, 0.56m wide, and 0.24m thick) bears an equal-armed cross set on a pedestal divided into three principal panels of ornament. The cross has rounded, hollowed angles, a central boss and is filled with foliaceous scrollwork; on the reverse a cross of similar form bears a crucifixion scene.
NSA 1845; Name Book; J Stuart 1867; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; W Macfarlane 1906-8; E M H M'Kerlie 1916; RCAHMS 1912; RCAHMS 1985, visited September 1984.
