Milton Of Clava
Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Enclosure (Medieval), Ring Cairn (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)(Possible)
Site Name Milton Of Clava
Classification Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Enclosure (Medieval), Ring Cairn (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)(Possible)
Alternative Name(s) St. Bridget's Chapel; Balnuaran Of Clava
Canmore ID 14282
Site Number NH74SE 7
NGR NH 75224 43930
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/14282
- Council Highland
- Parish Croy And Dalcross (Inverness)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH74SE 7 7522 4393.
(Centred NH 7522 4393) Stone Circle (NR) (Remains of) Chapel (NR) (Site of). Grave Yard (disused)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)
No structural features are now to be seen at this site, If there was a Clava-type cairn here it was completely demolished for the chapel which is said to occupy its site and the foundations of which can still be traced. There are certainly various stones about the ruins which suggest the presence of a Clava cairn but none appear to be in situ and it is possible that they have been brought from the north cairn.
A S Henshall 1963, visited 21 April 1958.
There is a Columban chapel at Clava believed to be dedicated to St. Dorothy.
G Bain 1893; New Statistical Account (NSA, written by Rev A Campbell - 1841) 1845.
Near the circle to the south of Milton there is an oblong enclosure, with two large blocks lying at its south-east corner, forming a kind of entrance of the enclosure. Within it there are the foundations of a small building known as St. Bridget's Chapel. The numerous large stones still remaining in connection with the enclosure and its contents would point to the former existence here of another great cairn like the others at Clava.
W Jolly 1882.
All that seems to remain of the circle at Milltown of Clava, is a standing stone at the south-west corner of the ruin of the ancient chapel, which is said to have been built within the area of the circle. The walls of the chapel measure about 30 feet long by 19 or 20 feet broad, with a door on the side facing the south-east. Around the chapel are the remains of the wall of a nearly rectangular burying-ground.
J Fraser 1884.
These remains are as described above.
Revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (W D J) 25 April 1962.
Air photographs, taken by Jill Harden in 1989, are in Inverness Museum (8907.03-05 INVMG).
Information from J Harden 1989.
Field Visit (April 1979)
Milton of Clava NH 752 439 NH74SE 7
What are said to be the footings of a chapel dedicated to St Bridget stand 280m SW of Milton of Clava farmhouse; the remains are more probably those of a cottage of comparatively recent date. The building, which is roughly rectangular on plan, measures 7m from NE to SW by up to 4.2m transversely within dry-stone walls some 1.4m in thickness; it stands within the SW end of an enclosure measuring 40.3m by 20.4m within a stony bank.
RCAHMS 1979, visited April 1979
Jolly 1882, 320-1; Fraser 1884, 341
Field Visit (July 1979)
Miltown of Clava,, South (INV 44) NH 752 439 NH74SE 7
In 1884 Fraser noted a single standing stone immediately SW of the cottage (NH74SE 7). It may have been all that then remained of a Clava cairn. The stone has now been removed.
RCAHMS 1979, visited July 1979
(Henshall 1963-72, i, 383)
