Skye, Kilbride Point
Burial Ground (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Church (Period Unassigned), Naust (Period Unassigned), Township (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Skye, Kilbride Point
Classification Burial Ground (Period Unassigned)(Possible), Church (Period Unassigned), Naust (Period Unassigned), Township (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Kilbride Point
Canmore ID 11188
Site Number NG36NE 3
NGR NG 3735 6605
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11188
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmuir
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG36NE 3 3735 6605.
(NG 3735 6605) There are the ruins of a church at Kilbride Point (RCAHMS 1928) and its burial ground is noted as being of ancient date. (T S Muir 1861)
There is also evidence of depopulation here: four ruined buildings are shown in 1875 (OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, Isle of Skye, 1st ed.).
Visited by OS (A C) 20 January 1961.
NSA 1845; T S Muir 1861; RCAHMS 1928.
On the highest point of Kilbride Point are the lower courses of a once substantial building measuring internally 10.4m E-W and 4.0m N-S. The walls are 1.1m thick and 0.6m high, with square corners and well defined faces. Although it has been partly overbuilt by a house, now also a ruin, there is no doubt that this is the remains of Kilbride Church. Abutting on the N wall of the church is a small enclosure marked out by a line of boulders; this was possibly the burial ground.
On the E side of the church are about 8 ruined houses, two of which have been re-roofed and serve as fishermen's huts.
Visited by OS (C F W) 27 April 1961.
A small township comprising one roofed and four unroofed buildings is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Island of Skye 1880, sheet vi). Two roofed and four unroofed buildings, one of which is annotated as the remains of a church, are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10560 map (1968).
Information from RCAHMS (SAH) 30 September 1996.
Measured Survey (May 2007)
NG 3735 6605 A survey of the chapel site at Kilbride Point on the W coast of the Trotternish peninsula was carried out in May 2007. A 1:50 scale plan was drawn of the chapel and later house. The chapel is orientated E/W and measures 10.4 x 4m internally with an area of 41.6m2. The walls reach a maximum height of 0.6m and 1.1m thick. The walls are solidly built with large pieces of stone, well defined faces and square corners.
There are quite well defined faces of wall on the E, N and part of the S wall. The later house fills two-thirds of the interior of the chapel. It is of markedly different construction to the chapel; it is rubble-built with curved walls. It overlies the chapel walls on the western end, and two thirds of the S and N walls.
Funder: The Hunter Archaeological Trust and the University of Glasgow’s Faculty of Arts Graduate School Research Support Fund.
