Field Visit
Date 26 June 2011
Event ID 932080
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/932080
The remains of this chapel are situated within the township of Bailenacille (NF88NE 6), on a low knoll that is otherwise occupied by a burial-ground and, immediately to the ESE of the chapel, the remains of a church (NF88NE 1). The chapel is rectangular on plan, originally measuring about 6m from WNW to ESE by 4m transversely over walls about 0.9m in thickness. It is therefore of comparable size to chapels or probable chapels on Ensay (NF98SE 4 and NF98SE 6), Killegray (NF98SE 1) and at Toe Head (NF99SE 6). The surviving architectural detail of the building appears to be as described by the Ordnance Survey in 1965, but there are probably surviving features that have been buried beneath the soil that has obviously been imported into the burial-ground to accommodate internments. However, the external face of the ESE gable is plainly visible to a height of about 1m, but this may have been exposed as a result of work undertaken to provide access to the doorway of St Mary’s Church, evidently a later construction. The graves within the chapel, like those within the church, conform to a pattern which has seen burials laid out in regular rows (orientated from NNE to SSW) within an oval burial-ground that is described elsewhere (see NF88NE 1).
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 26 June 2011
