Eilean Fhianain

A burial aisle, commemorative cross and grave slabs of the Kinlochmoidart Macdonalds stand about 14m SE of the church. Although the walls of the burial aisle have been poorly capped and pointed in cement, and the S wall is now collapsing, the aisle was presumably roofed in the late 19th century, and there are some indications that it had an earlier late medieval phase (cf. Muir 1885, 77).

Now an irregular rectangle on plan, it measures up to 4.85m from ENE to WSW by up to 3.72m transversely within walls that vary in thickness from 0.55m (WSW) to 0.75m (SSW). The ESE gable stands to an internal height of 2.25m but the remaining three walls have been capped at an internal height of 1.6m. The masonry is of rough dressed blocks, cement pointed and capped but there is some indication of an earlier phase in the lower 0.9m of the SSW and WNW internal walls which are in a neater style with pinnings.

The entrance is set close to the N end of the ESE gable. Now closed with an iron gate, a check on the SSW jamb and a pivot in the lintel indicates that it once had a timber door or iron gate, now lost. The NNE and SSW side-walls each contain a single window, the former containing a reused fragment of Inninmore Bay sandstone in its WNW jamb.

The interior of the burial aisle is paved and at the WNW end there are four plinths, three of which bear a simple cross. The second of these (from the N) bears the initials ‘W.J.R.’ and the date ‘1869’, and can be identified as William James Robertson b.1829-d.1869 of Kinloch Moidart. Immediately N of the burial aisle, and attached to it, is a fenced enclosure containing a Celtic cross on a massive rubble base bearing a memorial to William Frederick Roberston-Macdonald (1802—1883) and his family, and in front of it there are four grave slabs.

The memorial reads:

‘ERECTED BY FRIENDS / TO RECORD THEIR ESTEEM / FOR / WILLIAM ROBERTSON MACDONALD / OF KINLOCH MOIDART / B 1802 D 1883 / REPRESENTATIVE BY HIS FATHER OF / PRINCIPAL ROBERTSON THE HISTORIAN / BY HIS MOTHER OF THE / MACDONALDS OF KINLOCH MOIDART / HE LIES BURIED HERE / WITH HIS WIFE / SARAH ADAMS BECK B 1802 D 1877 / AND FOUR SONS / WILLIAM JAMES B 1829 D 1869 / W. DAVID A. B 1834 D 1883 / W. COKER A. B 1837 D 1841 / W. ANSTRUTHER B 1839 D 1859’

The Macdonalds of Kinlochmoidart are descended from John, son of Allan 9th of Clanranald, who died about 1644. William Robertson Macdonald arranged for the sale of the estate just prior to his death (Macdonald and Macdonald 1896, 298—308).

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (GFG) 6 September 2017.