St Colomba's Chapel, Loch Arkaig
Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Site Name St Colomba's Chapel, Loch Arkaig
Classification Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) St. Kearan's Chapel; Island Columbkil; Chalum Cille
Canmore ID 23731
Site Number NN18NE 1
NGR NN 1599 8885
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23731
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmallie
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
NN18NE 1 1599 8885.
Island Columbkill or Chalum Cille, situated near the head of Loch Arkaig, contains the remains of an old chapel dedicated to St Columba. Its date of erection is not known, but it was in use in the 17th century. Parts of the wall were standing to a height of about 4ft in 1872.
Orig Paroch Scot 1854; Name Book 1872; A Ross 1895; W D Simpson 1927.
The remains of St Columba's Chapel stand at the N end of the island, on the highest point, and are oriented E-W, measuring 11.0m by 4.9m within a wall of mortared rubble masonry 0.8m thick and 1.8m maximum height, the E wall and most of the W wall of which have collapsed. There are the remains of a doorway, c. 1.0m wide, at the W end of the S wall, and of a window c. 0.7m wide to the E of it. Although traces of the S and W sides of a graveyard were reported in 1961 on the S side of the chapel in the form of a turf-covered stone wall enclosing an area 18.0m N-S by c. 12.0m E-W, no gravestones were found and the only possible evidence in 1970 was a line of two or three stones in the roots of a tree c. 15m S of the chapel. There are, however, several grave-slabs within the chapel, one of which is faintly inscribed though illegible.
Visited by OS 17 July 1961 and 11 May 1970.
Ground Survey (2007)
NN 1599 8885 Chapel, burial ground, vitrified fort and crannog. Earlier descriptions of this scheduled ancient monument provide indecisive and conflicting information. The island is rectangular, measuring 42m N/S x 32m E/W at the time of the visit. Bedrock is exposed in the NE corner, and the vegetated part of the island, which measures 29m N/S x 19m E/W, consists of glacial till. The W and S sides have been supplemented with stones in the size range 0.1–0.3m, which extend into deeper water for several metres.
The chapel occupies the highest point, c2.5m above the level of the loch, oriented E/W and measuring c13.2 x 5.08m in walls of lime-mortared random rubble, 0.8m thick. The E gable has collapsed outwards, and evidence for an altar and associated burials has eroded into the loch. The E end of the N wall stands to a height of 3.5m, and parts of the N and S walls remain to wall-head level at c2.0m, but the W end has been reduced to grass-covered rubble. Two lengths of turf dyke to the S may mark the extent of the medieval burial ground, but the only evidence for burials are two fragments of slate gravestones cast down the bank below the chapel, one of which is inscribed D K or D R.
There is a 7m length of vitrified wall 0.8m high in the SE corner and another 4m length in the centre of the N side. Several large masses of vitrified material occur on the SW side, and smaller pieces are scattered throughout the crannog material on the W and S sides. The island was planted with European larch in the
second quarter of the 19th century, and erosion of the crannog material has left the roots severely exposed. One such tree in the SW corner stands so high that it must have been planted on top of an upstanding wall, part of which may be visible a little to the NNE. A short length of unassociated dry stone wall, three courses of flat slabs, is visible beneath a nearby stump, with a mass of burnt clay, possibly wattle and daub, on top.
There was no sign of the ‘well preserved causeway going zigzag to the shore’ (some 250m to the N), as recorded by Blundell in 1913, but the eroded remains of a probable jetty are visible in the water off the SW side.
A report will be deposited with the Highland Council SMR.
Funder: Sunart Oakwoods Research Group.
