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Inveraray, Kilmalieu
Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (18th Century), Grave Slab (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (17th Century)
Site Name Inveraray, Kilmalieu
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (18th Century), Grave Slab (Medieval), Grave Slab(S) (17th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Glenaray
Canmore ID 23608
Site Number NN10NW 5
NGR NN 1035 0962
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23608
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Inveraray
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NN10NW 5 1035 0962.
(NN 1034 0962) Site of (NAT) Chapel (NR) Burial Ground (Kilmilieu) (NAT)
OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 1st ed., (1873)
The old parishes of Glenaray and Inveraray were united in 1745. The old church of Glenaray was at Kilmalew (or Kilmalieu). It could have been dedicated either to St Liubha, Kilmalew being derived from Cill Mo Liubha, or, alternatively, the dedication was to St Maluog or Moluoc. The church was demolished about 1778, but the name Kilmalew remained with the churchyard.
The Ordnance Survey Name Book [ONB] (1870) refers to an old man pointing out where he had seen foundations of the old church, though no trace remained, at the position shown.
A fragmentary cross-shaft stands at the burial ground about 20 yds W of the gate from the main road and 6 yds N of the path - near a red granite obelisk. One medieval stone is built in as a coping stone of the wall dividing the E and W halves of the graveyard, and others lie S of this gateway near the boundary wall.
Name Book 1870; H Scott et al 1915-61; A R Cross 1958; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
No trace of the church remains; the cross shaft was not located.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 7 March 1973.
Field Visit (May 1989)
The site of the medieval church of Inveraray parish occupies an area of gently sloping ground between the NW shore of Loch Fyne and the SE spur of Dun na Cuaiche, 0.8km NE of Inveraray Castle and the site of the medieval burgh (Nos. 184, 199). The existing quadrangular enclosure, about 60m square, is shown in similar form on an estate-plan of 1731 (en.1) but the SE wall was rebuilt about 1747 when the loch-side road, now the A83, became part of the military road (No.264). A sketch elevation of that date by Roger Morris (en.2) corresponds to the existing square gate-piers of the entrance at the centre of the SE wall, built of chlorite-schist ashlar with pyramidal finials and bearing a set of masons' marks on one block of the SW pier (cf. No. 268). A re-entrant mid-wayalong the upper or NW wall may be associated with the site of the medieval church, and a building appears to be shown in that area on the 1731 plan, but there are no identifiable remains. A large addition to the burial-ground was made SW of the SW boundary-wall in the middle of the 19th century.
There are few early records of the medieval church, whose dedication may have been to a saint named Liba or Moliubha (en.3*). The parsonage revenues were appropriated to the collegiate church of Kilmun (No. 80) about 1466, but a parson is named in 1529 and 1541 and the church remained a free parsonage in the patronage of the Campbells of Argyll (en.4). Similarly, a merkland of Kilmalieu was granted to Kilmun in 1442, but a merkland of Kilmalieu Mor 'called Kirkland', with the shieling of Arriumtaggart (Airigh ant-sagairt, 'the priest's shieling') and other lands in Glenaray, were in the possession of the minister in 1627 (en.5). The original parish comprised Glen Aray and the NW shore of Loch Fyne extending SW to the Leacann Water, but despite the proximity of the church to Glen Shira, and repeated proposals in the 17th century to disjoin that area from Kilmorich parish (No. 74), it was not annexed to Glenaray parish until the end of that century (en.6).
The first post-Reformation minister was Niven or Ninian MacVicar, 'the parson of Kilmalieu', whose prophecies were celebrated in local tradition and who was believed to have conducted baptisms according to both the Roman Catholic and Reformed rites in a font with two basins, now preserved at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Inveraray (No. 3) (en.7). During the second quarter of the 17th century a clear division arose between the 'English' congregation in the burgh and the Gaelic-speaking highland or 'Irish' congregation in the landward area, and in 1650 Alexander Gordon was called to be minister of the English congregation only, while the appointment in 1657 of the first minister of the separate highland charge, known as Glenaray parish, ended a longvacancy (en.8). A 'new kirk' is mentioned in 1630, and a church for the English congregation was built in the old town in the 1650s (see No. 199), but there is no record of when the medieval church was abandoned.
RCAHMS 1992, visited May 1989
[see RCAHMS 1992 No. 65 for a detailed description of 68 medieval and post-reformation funerary monuments and carved stones]
