Skye, Bracadale Parish Church, Churchyard And St Assind's Chapel
Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (Medieval)
Site Name Skye, Bracadale Parish Church, Churchyard And St Assind's Chapel
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (Medieval)
Canmore ID 100553
Site Number NG33NE 6.01
NGR NG 35583 38801
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/100553
- Council Highland
- Parish Bracadale
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
Balgown Parish Church, William Smith, 1831 A simple box with Y-traceried windows beside the Voaker burn. In the stone-walled kirkyard, remnants of an earlier pre-Reformation church and two late medieval gravestones, carvings of knight etc. still discernible. Near the waterfall above, the (former) Balgown Manse, c.1790, altered and extended by Alexander Ross, 1882.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NG33NE 6.01 35583 38801
In the adjoining chuuchyard are two grave slabs with a claymore and foliaceous designs carved on each. A third stone bears in high relief the effigy of a warrior clad in a surcoat.
Visited by OS (C F W) 6 December 1960.
Statistical Account (OSA) 1792; Orig Paroch Scot 1854; RCAHMS 1928
Bracadale Church is still in use but in the old graveyard to the NE, abutting on the side of a small private burial enclosure at NG 3558 3879, there are the foundations of a building said to be an old church (Information from Mr Lockhart, Bracdale). The remains consist of turf-covered foundations, orientated NE-SW, constructed of rubble masonary bonded with shell-lime mortar and divided into two compartments. The larger measures about 10.0m long by 5.0m wide internally with walling 1.5m wide and 0.7m high, the smaller 5m square internally with walling of similar dimensions.
The building has been extensively mutilated by graves which now lie both inside and on top of the walling, but its general appearance, plan and orientation suggest that it is almost certainly St. Assind's Chapel.
Visited by OS (CFW) 1 June 1961.
Field Visit (20 May 1915)
Grave Slabs, Bracadale.
In the kirkyard beside the parish church of Bracadale, near Struanmore, which is said to be built near or on the site of the ancient chapel of St Assind (1) are two grave slabs with a claymore and foliaceous designs carved on each. One is in a good state of preservation and measures 6 feet 2 inches in length, 19½ inches in breadth at the top, and 17 inches at the foot. In the upper portion is a foliaceous cross, -and under it is a claymore with drooping quillons and a fan-shaped pommel divided into seven ribs. On one side of the sword-blade is a running scroll of foliaceous work and on the other side a scroll of a more open floriated and foliaceous design. A portion of the slab at the foot is much worn and any ornamentation, if it ever existed has been obliterated (Fig. 246.) A third stone, 6 ¼ by 2 feet, bears in high relief the effigy of a warrior clad in a surcoat. The head rests on a cushion. The sword lies along the body.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 20 May 1915.
Skye xxviii. (unnoted).
(1) Orig. Par., vol. ii., part 1, p. 357.
