Muck, A'chill
Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval)
Site Name Muck, A'chill
Classification Cross Incised Rock (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Port Mor; Sean Bhaile
Canmore ID 319419
Site Number NM47NW 1.02
NGR NM 42080 79519
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/319419
- Council Highland
- Parish Small Isles
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
A’ Chill 2, Isle of Muck, Skye & Lochalsh, cross-slab
Measurements: H 0.73m, W 0.37m, D 0.18m
Stone type: igneous boulder
Place of discovery: NM 4208 7951
Present location: in a craft shop on the east side of Port Mor.
Evidence for discovery: found in A’ Chill burial ground and moved to the craft shop in 1993.
Present condition: damaged along the left-hand side of the carved face.
Description
This rounded slab is incised with an outline cross with small rounded armpits, set within an incised rectilinear frame. The left-hand side and the terminal of the lef-hand arm of the cross are missing, and the frame on the right-hand side stops about half-way down the shaft.
Date range: seventh or eighth century.
Primary references: Fisher 2001, 92.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
Reference (2001)
(2) Round-ended igneous boulder, lacking the left edge. It measures 0.73m by 0.37m in maximum width and 0.18m in thickness. On the flat face there is an outline Latin cross with curved armpits, 0.48m high and about 0.28m in original span, set within a partial rectangular frame. The cross-shaft has an open foot and the ends of the arms extend to the frame. The right edge of the frame terminates above the level of the foot of the shaft, presumably because the stone was intended to be set upright. The carving is executed with a firmly pecked and cut groove of V-section.
I Fisher 2001.
Field Visit (18 May 2002)
This chapel and burial-ground are situated on the leading edge of a terrace on the E flank of Cnoc na Croise, lying at the foot of the slope below the township of Kiel (NM47NW 7).
The chapel (Muck02 302) lies in the SE part of the burial-enclosure, towards the leading edge of the terrace. It is subrectangular on plan, measuring 6.1m from ENE to WSW by 3.1m within a faced rubble wall up to 1.5m in thickness and 1m in height. The entrance lies at the WSW end of the SSE side. The font has been moved into the School House.
The burial-ground is roughly oval on plan and measures about 28m from NNE to SSW by 21m transversely within a robbed stone wall. This has been reduced in places to little more than a scarp, and on the E is missing for a short distance. The interior of the burial-ground is packed with grave markers. There are thirteen memorials of 19th-century and later date, including two for sailors lost in the Second World War, and a tall pink granite pillar dedicated to islanders lost in a boating accident. A total of 115 undecorated markers, each comprising a water-rolled boulder or flat slab, can also be seen, the vast majority arranged in rows orientated roughly from NNE to SSW. The cross-marked boulder (Fisher 2001, 92, no.2) stands more-or-less upright in one of these rows to the W of the chapel (NM 42080 79519). In addition, there are six heaps of stones, the largest measuring about 2m across and 0.5m in height. The ground to the W of the enclosure is rough and uneven, possibly indicating that the burial-ground once extended across the adjacent part of the terrace.
(Muck02, 302)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 18 May 2002
