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Colonsay, Balnahard, Cill Chaitriona 1

Cross Slab (Early Medieval)

Site Name Colonsay, Balnahard, Cill Chaitriona 1

Classification Cross Slab (Early Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Cill Cairine, Cnoc Corr

Canmore ID 318475

Site Number NR49NW 1.01

NGR NR 4215 9989

NGR Description Now in NMAS

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/318475

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

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Colonsay And Oronsay
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Activities

Field Visit (May 1977)

NR 421 998. These remains occupy a remote site at the head of an unnamed glen about 0.8 km NE of Balnahard Farm and 1.25 km from the N point of Colonsay. They comprise the grass-grown ruins of a small oblong building which stands near the centre of a trapezoidal enclosure. The ground slopes gently from N to S, and a standing stone, NR49NW 2 (RCAHMS 1984, No. 87) is situated 31m NE of the enclosure.

The building, which is identifiable as a chapel dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria (Gaelic, Caitriona), is a round-angled oblong structure built of drystone rubble masonry. It measures about 7.1m from E to W by 3.5m transversely within walls about 1.5m in thickness, which survive to a maximum height of 1m; the doorway may have been near the w end of the s wall, but there are no clearly identifiable remains. There is a group of recumbent slabs at the E end of the interior, and outside the SW angle of the building there is a hollowed field-boulder which may have served as a mortar or basin. (Loder 1935) There is a low stony mound opposite each end of the building, and at least two other similar mounds lie in the NE quarter of the enclosure.

The enclosure-dyke, which is constructed of turf and rubble, stands to an average height of about 0.5m and is 1m in width. There are entrances in the S and E sides, and immediately N of the E entry there are the remains of an ovoid structure which measures 5.5m in maximum internal diameter and is entered from the E.

Cruciform Stones:

One of these stones (number 1) was found lying in the enclosure shortly before 1881, when it was presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. The other stands at the NW angle of the enclosure.

(1) [Canmore ID 318475] Cruciform slab, probably of epidiorite. The top and right arms are broken, and it measures 0.98m in incomplete height by 0.27m across the arms, the original span being about 0.31m. The surviving side-arm has a projection of 50mm, and the armpits are square. On one face the margin of the upper part of the shaft and the cross-head has been cut back, leaving in low relief an irregular interlace of broad bands. These enclose in the cross-head four holes, 25mm in diameter, pierced through the slab and surrounded by raised margins. (Stevenson 1881; Allen and Anderson 1903; Loder 1935).

(2) [Canmore ID 319763] Cruciform slab of local siliceous flagstone, probably /B ofTorridonian age. It measures 0.88m in visible height and the shaft tapers in width from 0.23m at base to 0.16m below the cross-head, which has been defined simply by rounded notches cut into the edges of the slab to form its armpits. The stone is much worn through use by cattle as a rubbing-post, and it is uncertain whether the side-arms ever projected beyond the width of the shaft. (Loder 1935).

RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1977

Measured Survey (1977 - 1983)

RCAHMS surveyed the chapel and burial-ground at Cill Chatriona at a scale of 1:100, and produced detailed drawings of two cross-marked stones (one of which was in the NMAS). Each of the drawings was reproduced in ink and published at a reduced scale to include: the chapel (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 33(F)), a site plan (fig. 160B) and the stones (fig. 161A and 161B).

Reference (2001)

Drystone chapel of St Catherine in trapezoidal enclosure.

(1) Cruciform slab lacking the top and right arm, 0.98m by about 0.31m in original span. The armpits are square and the head and upper shaft contain interlace of broad bands which in the head encloses four piercings with raised margins. (NMS X. IB 42)

I Fisher 2001

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