Ardchattan, Old Kirk

NM 970 353. The remains of this church stand within a burial-ground about 400 m NW of Ardchattan Priory (No. 217). The building is ruinous and much overgrown with trees and ivy, but the E gable-wall remains almost intact, whilst the N and W walls stand to a height of about 3'0 m above the present floor-level. The church is of unicameral plan and measures 17'2 m from W to E by 6'4 m transversely within walls about 1'0 m in thickness (Fig.102). The masonry is of roughly-coursed local rubble laid in coarse lime mortar and well bonded with pinnings. The dressings, most of which have been robbed, were of yellow sandstone, probably quarried at Ardtornish. Numerous blocks of coarse-grained variegated sandstone also occur in the rubble facework of the walls and this material was probably quarried locally, perhaps at Bridge of Awe (No. 354). Some of these blocks are evidently in secondary use and probably derive from an earlier church on the same site. One such fragment, situated in the N wall about 1'7 m from the inner NW corner of the building and at a height of 1'5 m above floor-level, is wrought with a 'quirked edge-roll of 13th-centurycharacter. The E gable of the church is founded upon a substantial splayed plinth of rubble some 1'2 m in height, while the upper portion of the wall is intaken internally at a height of 4'0 m above floor-level.

The building seems to have been served by a single entrance-doorway placed near the centre of the S wall, but this is now blocked by a dry-stone wall. In the centre of the E gable-wall there is a narrow single-light window having a lintelled ingo (Pl. 21C), and there are the remains of a similar opening towards the E end of the S wall. There may have been another window at the W end of the same wall (Howson, writing in 1842, however, states that the church contained only three windows, all 'flat-topped' (Howson, Antiquities, 93)), while part of a splayed high-level window survives in the centre of the W gable-wall. The external face of the E gable-wall contains two small aumbries, flanking the site of the altar.

In the absence of architectural mouldings or details it is difficult to ascribe a precise date to the church, but it probably belongs to the 15th or early 16th century. The plan and overall dimensions correspond closely with those of the old parish-church of Kilmore (No. 264).

This church served the former parish of Ardchattan (The parishes of Ardchattan and Muckairn were united in 1637), a district which comprised Benderloch, together with an extensive tract of country lying on the E side of Loch Etive to the N of the River Awe. The dedication was either to St Modan or to St Baedan (Mackinlay, Non-Scriptural Dedications, 148-9). Little is known of the history of the church, and the date at which it was abandoned for worship is not recorded. The building may still have been in use in about 1630 when it was specifically designated as the parish church (Geog. Call., ii, 153), but in 1678 it was reported to the presbytery that ‘the brethren having visited the fabrick of the old parish church of Ballevoadan, as also the fabrick of the kirk and Quire of Ardchattan, as being the ordinar place of publick worship past memory of any at present living, do find both ruined, and nothing but old walles’ (Lorn Presbytery Minutes, i (1651-84), pp. 306-7). Directions were given for the repair of Baile Mhaodain, but an undated memorandum of about 1730 states that ‘preaching & other parts of divine worship hes now for a long tyme bein administrat in the Monastrie Church ofArdchattan & the Kirk of Ballevoadan become ruinous’ (Campbell of Ardchattan Papers, Ardchattan Priory, Top Drawer, 'Memoriall & Queries for the heritors of the paroch of Ardchattan').

Both churches were superseded by a new building (No.215) erected on a different site in 1731-2.

BURIAL-GROUND. The burial-ground was evidently enclosed by a dry-stone wall, of which some remains can be seen on the S side of the church. The interior is very much overgrown with grass and bracken, but none of the visible tombstones appear to be of a date earlier than about the end of the 18th century.

TOBAR MHAODAIN (NM 971 353). This is the name given to a spring situated on the right bank of the Eas Mhaodain about 50 m NE of the church. The mouth of the spring is enclosed by dry-stone masonry and is lintelled over to form a culvert from which the water discharges into a slab-built trough. This arrangement, however, probably dates from a fairly recent period.

RCAHMS 1975, visited July 1970.

Measured survey of the church. Redrawn in ink and published at the reduced scale of 1:100 (RCAHMS 1975, fig. 102)

Uncertain age. Oblong. Random rubble, much dilapidated.

Overgrown. Roofless. Window in each gable.

Interior: Head-stones on grass-grown floor.

N.S.A.

Groome

T.S.A.

Argyll C.C. 'List'

Burnt to the ground. c.1800.

Information from Historic Scotland, 28 August 1980