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Fort William, Corpach, Kilmallie Old Parish Church

Church (16th Century)

Site Name Fort William, Corpach, Kilmallie Old Parish Church

Classification Church (16th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Corpach, Old Kilmallie Church

Canmore ID 23586

Site Number NN07NE 3

NGR NN 09050 76938

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23586

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Kilmallie
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Lochaber
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Recording Your Heritage Online

Former Parish Church, 16th century. Ivy-clad remains in stone-walled graveyard, later adapted as a Cameron burial enclosure. Glazing grooves are still evident in the north window and the west window has an incised medieval grave slab reused as a lintel. An earlier church on or near this site was the burial place of early Cameron chiefs.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

Archaeology Notes

NN07NE 3.00 09050 76938

(NN 0905 7693) Chapel (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6"map, (1938)

NN07NE 3.01 NN 09042 76921 Burial Ground

The remains of the former parish church of Kilmallie, re-used as a family burial-place of the Camerons of Locheil, standing the the old burial ground, which was superseded by a new cemetery in 1953. Apparently a N aisle of the church, it is a small unroofed enclosure, with walls 10' high and 2' to 2'8" thick, measuring 23'3" N-S by 16'3" E-W internally. There is a deeply-splayed window opening in the N wall, a sealed window in the W wall, and a round-arched doorway in the S.

The date of this particular building is not known but the origins of Kilmallie church go back to the Early Christian period, with a dedication to Maillidh, and the presence of an Annat (NN07NE 3) nearby. There is a tradition that one of the early churches stood further up the hill than its successors. The first recorded date for the church is 1296 and there are traditional tales of rebuilding in the 15th or 16th centuries. The church was disused from the Reformation until 1661 in which year there is a record of a proposed rebuilding.

MacCulloch (1938) says that a Cameron who died in 1719 is buried within the present ruin, which would suggest that the church of which it formed part was out of use by that time; but none of the dates on the monuments is earlier than 1799.

This later date would fit better with known facts eg. that the modern church was built in 1783, the stones from the old church being used in the construction of the modern churchyard wall. Acceptance of the former date would mean that the parish was served by yet another church between the beginning of the 18th century and 1783.

H Scott et al 1915-61; W J Watson 1926; D B MacCulloch 1938; D B MacCulloch 1971.

There is no trace of any of the old churches.

Visited by OS (N K B), 15 May 1970.

Chapel (remains of)

Graveyard [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, May 2010.

Activities

Field Walking (October 2001)

NN 1191 7702 to NN 0928 7460 A desk-based assessment and walkover survey were carried out in advance of work to lay new sections of water main, totalling approximately 16km, on the N and S shores of Loch Eil. The desk-based assessment identified a single building on the 1st edition OS not noted in the NMRS (NN 0584 7829). The survey identified two sites: a small 19th-century building (NN 0512 7702) and a borrow-pit (NN 0936 7517).

Full report lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Team Aquarius

R Conolly 2001 (Headland Archaeology)

References

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