St Bennet's Chapel And Well
Chapel (Medieval), Well (Medieval)
Site Name St Bennet's Chapel And Well
Classification Chapel (Medieval), Well (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Fairy's Cradle
Canmore ID 14426
Site Number NH76NE 1
NGR NH 7913 6507
NGR Description NH 7913 6507 and NH 7923 6502
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/14426
- Council Highland
- Parish Cromarty
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH76NE 1 7913 6508 and 7923 6502.
(NH 7913 6508) St Bennet's Chapel (NR) (Site of), (NH 7923 6502) St Bennet's Well (NR)
OS 6" map, (1959)
Nothing is known of this chapel. Pullan suggests that the dedication is to St Benedict of Nursia (480 - 543) but the situation of the chapel, on a cliff beside the sea, is more suggestive of a Celtic foundation.
St Bennet's Well is a rag-well at which offerings were still being left in 1935.
L Pulan 1927; M D Hiley 1935.
There is no trace and no local knowledge of St Bennet's Chapel. St Bennet's Well, a natural spring, is still used as a rag-well.
Visited by OS (NKB) 28 January 1966.
Traces of a heap of stones and a grassy mound remained of the chapel in 1834. A stone trough named the 'Fairy's Cradle' stood nearby until about 1745 when it was destroyed.
Orig Paroch Scot 1855; H Miller 1835
This has been a desk assessment area.
J Wordsworth, SSSIs, Scottish Natural Heritage, 1993.
St Bennet's Chapel (site of), well - visited.
This natural spring in less than 40m above the high water mark in dense undergrowth. Large stones next to spring may be the remains of a surround for the well or may be natural.
CFA/MORA Coastal Assessment Survey 1998.
Field Visit (May 1979)
Navity 1, Chapel NH 791 650 NH76NE 1
A pre-Reformation chapel dedicated to St Bennet is said to have stood here; in 1855 'a
heap of stones and a grassy mound' were still to be seen.
RCAHMS 1979, visited May 1979
OPS 1851-5, ii, 560; Miller 1889, 105-6; Macdonald and Laing 1970, 137
