Islay, Port Ellen, Tighcargamen
Cross (Medieval)
Site Name Islay, Port Ellen, Tighcargamen
Classification Cross (Medieval)
Canmore ID 37535
Site Number NR34NE 13
NGR NR 363 458
NGR Description NR c. 363 458
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37535
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR34NE 13 c. 363 458
A cross, the site of which is still to be seen, stood at Tighcargaman.
Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1883; (undated) information from Mrs Ramsay, Kildalton.
The name Crois Tigh Chargamain, the cross of Tighcargaman, was collected as applying to a rocky ridge at NR 3629 4580. The meaning of the name was not known.
Name Book 1878.
There is no trace and no local knowledge of a cross in the area suggested above.
Visited by OS (BS) 6 June 1978; (undated) information from Mrs Earl, Islay Cottage, Port Ellan.
Field Visit (December 1982)
NR c. 363 458. This damaged cross-head of late medieval type was found by Sir Arthur Mitchell at Tighcargaman in 1877, and removed to Kildalton House whence it was transferred in 1923 to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. Although the exact find-spot is not recorded, it may have been on rising ground 100m NE of Tighcargaman House, where the Ordnance Survey recorded the name 'Crois Tigh Chargamain' ('cross of Tigh Cargaman').*
The fragment, which is carved of local schistose epidiorite, measures 0.46m in height by 0.37m in width, and the width at the top of the shaft is 0.21m. The diameter of the disc was 0.34m, but only the lower right segment of the perimeter is intact, and the arms are also broken. On the front, within a flat margin, the figure of the Crucified Saviour has been carved in relief, with the body filling the shaft and the head in the lower half of the cross-head. The rood appears to have been of plain type, but its top arm is inclined to the left. The remaining spaces in the cross-head are filled with foliage, and the back of the cross is carved in low relief with foliaceous ornament incorporating rosettes. PSAS 1923, 295; Richardson 1927, fig. 10.3; Lamont 1968, pl. xxx a, b)
RCAHMS 1984, visited December 1982.
*The OS 6-inch map, Argyllshire, sheet 232 (2nd ed, 1900). Mrs Lucy Ramsay's account of the discovery states that 'it was found on a rude and broken-down foundation, which had been formed on a rock. On the front of the rock, there is a cup formed stone' (Kildalton Antiquities Catalogue, no.8). See also PSAS 17 (1882-3), 280. The OS Name Book, No. 36, 116, identifies Crois Tigh Chargamain as 'a rocky ridge'.
Measured Survey (1982)
RCAHMS prepared a measured drawing of the carved stone from Tighcargamon at 1:10. The drawing was published at 1:15 (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 261E).
