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North Uist, Aird A' Mhorain
Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval), Holy Well (Medieval), Natural Feature (Period Unassigned)
Site Name North Uist, Aird A' Mhorain
Classification Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval), Holy Well (Medieval), Natural Feature (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 10335
Site Number NF87NW 3
NGR NF 83512 78668
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10335
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
Field Visit (17 August 1914)
Cross inscribed on Rock at Ard a Mhorain.
On the flat, vertical face of a rock washed by the waves at high water, about 200 yards west of the burial ground at Ard a Mhorain and barely 2 ½ miles north-north-east of Grenetote, is an incised cross potent measuring 14 ½ inches in length and 7 ½ inches across the arms. (Fig. 102.)
Holy Well. On the shingly beach under the high-water mark, some 9 yards to the south-east of the cross, is a fine spring of fresh water bubbling up through the pebbles variously known as the ‘Well of the Priest’, ‘Well of the Cross’, or ‘Well of the Cups’, the last name referring to the adjacent cup-marked rock (No. 265) .
RCAHMS 1928, visited 17 August 1914.
OS map: North Uist xxx (unnoted).
Field Visit (17 August 1914)
Cup-marked Rocks, Ard a Mhorain.
Some 28 feet south-east of the cross at Ard a Mhorain, on the pebbly beach under high-water mark, are two impinging parallel ridges of rock outcropping through the shingle, showing a length of 3 feet 2 inches and 4 feet 2 inches and a breadth of about 1 foot. On the western shorter ridge are at least eight cupmarks, four in an irregular line near the apex of the rock and four placed lozenge-wise at the northern end, while about a dozen occupy the line of the ridge of the parallel rock. The cups vary from 3 ½ to 2 ½ inches in diameter and from 2 ½ inches to ½ inch in depth.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 17 August 1914
OS map: North Uist xxx (unnoted).
Field Visit (20 June 1965)
The incised cross at NF 8350 7869, at the side of the 'Well of the Priest', and the cupmarked stone at NF 8351 7868 are as described above and as photographed. The well is now filled with stones and is no longer functional.
Another cupmarked stone, measuring 3.0m x 1.2m x 1.1m was found at NF 8353 7869. It bears eleven distinct cups at its north end and a possible twelfth at its southern end. None of the cupmarks on these stones is regular in size or depth and they may be natural.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (R D) 20 June 1965.
Desk Based Assessment (1965)
NF87NW 3 835 786.
(NF 8353 7868) A small well, variously known as 'of the Priest', 'of the Cross' and 'of the cups' is situated on the beach, 200 yards west of the graveyard of Ard a'Bhorain (NF87NW 16). It is at the base of a massive rock just above HWM, on the face of which a Latin cross, 14ins long, is inscribed. The well still functions.
Nine yards to the SE are 24 cupmarks arranged along the twin narrow and parallel ridges of a boulder embedded in the beach. Other cupmarks are said to exist, both above the well and on various stones at the NE side of the same promontory but Beveridge was unable to find them.
Information from OS.
(E Beveridge 1911).
Reference (2001)
The headland of Aird a' Mhorain ('headland of the bent-grass'), some 40m in height, projects into the Sound of Harris at the NE end of a promontory about 4km long. Above the rocky shore at the SE angle of the headland there is a burial-ground containing the 18th-century family enclosure of the MacLeans of Boreray.(NF87NW 16) Some 200m to the W, and associated with a well which is now obscured by shingle, there is a rock-cut cross. It lies at the junction of the rocky foreshore with a shingle beach to the W, near a convenient area for landing small boats.
The cross is incised at the base of an irregular outcrop of gneiss, on a vertical rock-face which is washed by the highest spring tides. Although waterworn, its V-section grooves remain fairly clear except at the foot of the shaft. It is of Latin form, measuring 0.37m by 0.18m across the arms, and the terminals are triangular except for the less distinct expansion at the foot of the shaft.
Footnote:
(i) The well was immediately below the cross (RCAHMS 1928, No.165). It was variously known as the well 'of the priest', 'of the cross' or 'of the cups', and had been a place of pilgrimage (PSAS, 16 (1881-2), 400-1; E Beveridge 1911, 300). The adjacent cup-marks appear to be largely natural in origin.
E Beveridge 1911, 300 and pl. opp. p.300; RCAHMS 1928, No.165 and fig.102.
I Fisher 2001. 111.
Note (1 June 2019)
Date Fieldwork Started: 01/06/2019
Compiled by: ScRAP
Location Notes: The cross and well are as described. A boulder located about 6m to the SE of the cross in a roughly arranged semi-circle of stones has at least 19 well-formed circular hollows of different dimensions and several shallow, less well-defined sub-circular features on its sloping surface. A further 3m to the SE are two rounded low-lying rock outcrops immediately adjacent to each other, both with similar circular hollows. The hollows form a SE-NW alignment along the top of the more northerly of these outcrops. There are similar depressions on various other outcrops and stones along the shore line to the E. All are almost certainly natural features, possibly caused by tidal action.
