Field Visit

Date 12 May 1978

Event ID 921821

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/921821

The ruins of St Orain's Chapel (name not verified) are generally as described. Orientated E-W it measures 14.8m E-W by 5.3m over walling 0.7m thick. The E gable has tumbled and the rubble lies outside the building. The W gable is intact and the other walls survive to a height of 2.1m. A simple unmarked cross said to have surmounted the E gate (Lighthouse keeper, Isle of Orsay) is set on a plinth outside the S chapel wall. The join line of the eatern extension is clearly visible on the exterior of the N wall suggesting a length of 10.3m for the original chapel.

Tung Mhic Aoidh na Ranna (name verified) is a simple burial vault 3.0m long by 1.8m and 1.1m high. It has an open W end and is built of roughly dressed stone and covered with flat slabs. Two of the three known cross fragments (of possible 6th-8th century date) are in the Islay Museum; the third is lost (G Booth, Islay Museum, Port Charlotte).

Tomb surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (TRG) 12 May 1978