Desk Based Assessment
Date 1972
Event ID 765442
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/765442
NG20NE 1 2692 0553
(NG 2692 0553) St Columba's Chapel (NR)
(Site of) Burial Ground (NR)
OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903).
See also NG20NE 2, NG20NE 13 and NG20NE 45.
St Columba's Church, Canna, is mentioned by Archdeacon Monro in 1549, but was in ruins when noticed by Pennant in 1772 (OPS 1855). Within the churchyard close to the W boundary wall is a sculptured slab of micaceous schist covering a modern grave. It is 5'8 1/2" x 3 1/2 x 1' (RCAHMS 1928). A fragment of a cross-shaft was found c.1900 in a wall not far from the free-standing cross, (NG20NE 2) and presumably also in the churchyard. It is in two pieces (together 2' x 1' x 3") and features a design of human legs and entwined serpent (J R Allen and J Anderson 1903). It was preserved within the modern Memorial church (RCAHMS 1928) but appears to have been since removed by J L Campbell (the laird) to Canna House (NG20NE 24), where it was seen by Rivet in 1961
(OS 6"map annotated by A L F Rivet, 26 June 1961).
Lethbridge suggests that the cross may be of the 7th century.
(Private 6" map of T C Lethbridge, 1953)
T Pennant 1790; Orig Paroch Scot 1855; D Monro 1884; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; RCAHMS 1928.
Information from OS.
