Pabbay, Teampull Beag
Chapel (Medieval)
Site Name Pabbay, Teampull Beag
Classification Chapel (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) St. Moluag's Chapel
Canmore ID 10381
Site Number NF88NE 2
NGR NF 88936 86971
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10381
- Council Western Isles
- Parish Harris
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NF88NE 2 8892 8698.
(NF 88928698) Teampull Beag (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)
Teampull Beag - 'The Small Church' - was dedicated to St. Moluag, and stands close to the late Teampull Mhoire (NF88NE 1).
Only a small part of the eastern gable and northern wall remains, showing a thickness of 2ft 10ins and a height of about 2 1/2ft. Its length and breadth cannot be ascertained.
Simpson indicates 'Kilmaluag' associated with an early cross or sculptured stone.
Name Book 1878; RCAHMS 1928 [Visited by JGC 10 June 1914]; W D Simpson 1935.
This chapel is as described above, the SE gable measuring 4.0m in length, and the NE wall now surviving about 2.0m long. A conjectural length for the chapel would be about 6.0m. No trace of a sculptured stone was found, but several grave stones are situated within the chapel ruins.
Visited by OS (R D) 30 June 1965.
(NB 001 008 and NF 890 875) Following comprehensive desk-based assessment of 'papa' sites and place-names in the N of Scotland to investigate the factors lying behind the choice of Papay/Pabbay/Papil locations for settlement by Celtic Christian communities, a programme of fieldwork was initiated during the summer of 2002. This work included the location, identification and an initial comparison of anthropogenic soils at Pabbay, Harris and at Paible, Taransay (NB00SW 4). Both places are associated with the remains of chapel sites and burial grounds. Midden deposits over 1m deep were identified adjacent to St Keith's Chapel at Taransay, and a recently exposed cliff section, 2-3m high, revealed evidence of possible spade cultivation towards the base of the section.
At Bailenacille on Pabbay (NF88NE 1 and NF88NE 2 ) a deep topsoil was located beneath significant windblown sand adjacent to the Teampull Mhoire site and to the N and E. It is expected that further sampling and analysis of the soils in this area will elucidate past land management practices associated with their formation and their location close to the chapel site.
Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.
Sponsors: Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
B Ballin Smith, B Crawford and I Simpson 2003
Field Visit (10 June 1914)
Church, Teampull Beag.
The ruins of an older and smaller church lie 12 feet 10 inches to the west of Teampull Mhoire. Only a small part of the eastern gable and northern wall remains, showing a thickness of 2 feet 10 inches and a height of about 2 1/2 feet. It is orientated about 15 degrees more to the north of west and south of east than the later church. Neither the length nor breadth of the building is ascertainable.
Visited by RCAHMS (JGC) 10 June 1914
Field Visit (30 June 1965)
This chapel is as described above, the SE gable measuring 4.0m in length, and the NE wall now surviving about 2.0m long. A conjectural length for the chapel would be about 6.0m. No trace of a sculptured stone was found, but several grave stones are situated within the chapel ruins.
Visited by OS (R D) 30 June 1965.
Desk Based Assessment (25 May 1965)
(NF 88928698) Teampull Beag (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)
Teampull Beag - 'The Small Church' - was dedicated to St. Moluag, and stands close to the late Teampull Mhoire (NF88NE 1).
Only a small part of the eastern gable and northern wall remains, showing a thickness of 2ft 10ins and a height of about 2 1/2ft. Its length and breadth cannot be ascertained.
Simpson indicates 'Kilmaluag' associated with an early cross or sculptured stone.
Information from OS (ES) 25 June 1965
Name Book 1877; RCAHMS 1928; W D Simpson 1935.
Field Visit (26 June 2011)
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
Measured Survey (26 June 2011 - 27 June 2011)
RCAHMS surveyed the church, chapel and graveyard at Teampull Mhhoire and Teampull Beag, Pabbay between 26-27 June 2011 with plane-table and alidade at a scale of 1:100.
Measured Survey (22 May 2019)
HES Survey and Recording undertook a UAV survey of Baile na Cille on 22 May 2019 consisting of the capture of 144 vertical aerial photographs from a DJI Inspire 2 UAV with an X7 Zenmuse camera. No GNSS data was captured.
The data was subsequently used to generate an image-based 3D model using Agisoft Metashape Pro software. The project archive includes the imagery (UAV Sortie 2019/7), the dense point cloud (txt/laz), an orthomosaic, a slope visualisation and metadata.
Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GFG), 22 May 2019.
