Colonsay, Balaruminmore, Paire Na Henglais

NR39SE 14 3842 9144.

(NR 3842 9145) Burial Ground (NR) Carragh Mhic a' Phi (NR) (No detail shown)

OS 6" map (1900)

(NR 3843 9144) Carragh Mhic' Bhi (NR)

OS 6" map (1878)

The remains of a pre-Reformation chapel in the centre of a circular graveyard which is delimited by "monoliths placed edgeways". Carragh Mhic a' Phi, the remains of a cross, stands immediately E of the burial ground. The chapel, 30' x 20' and oriented, is said to have been used as a place of worship as late as the 17th century. Only the footings remain. The burial ground, 21 paces in diameter, is said to have been used for the burial of unbaptised children, and old people in 1880 could remember such a burial taking place.

The cross, known as Carragh Mhic a' Phi - MacFie's Standing Stone - formerly stood 12' - 14' high, but had been broken down to 8'6" by 1918, in which year the remains used as a rubbing stone, were knocked over by cattle and they lay broken on the ground until 1934 when they were re-erected. The cross bore traces of carving which Grieve interpreted as the lower part of a Crucifixion. The field in which the remains lie is known as Pairc-na-h' eaglais - Field of the Church.

S Grieve 1923; J de V Loder 1935

Information from OS (ES) 2 August 1972

The chapel and burial ground are now completely grass- covered and there is no sign of the cross. The chapel measures 8.0m E-W by 4.5m, the walls being 1.2m wide in the E, where best preserved, while elsewhere spread to 2.0m and everywhere remaining to a height of up to 1.0m. The chapel is divided in two by a wall of stones set on end. The entrance is not apparent although there are breaks in the wall on the N and S sides. The burial ground is still traceable and measures 20.0m in diameter within turf-covered walling 1.3m wide.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (BS) 11 April 1974

RCAHMS surveyed the building and burial-ground at Balaruminore at a scale of 1:100, and produced detailed drawings of two cross-marked stones. The drawings of the stones were redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 158A, 158B), but the plan of the burial-ground was not published.

This site lies within the W corner of a field known as Pairc na h-eaglais ('field of the church'), about 250m NW Balaruminmore farmhouse. The N boundary of the site is defined by a low crescentic bank which stands to a maximum height of O.5m, while the S half is traversed by an area of rig-cultivation. The remains of the enclosure are thus roughly semicircular on plan, measuring about 22m in diameter from E to W. Standing within this area are the foundations of a small oblong building which, although aligned E-W, does not appear to have been a chapel and was probably associated with the later agricultural use of the site. It measures 7m in length by 3m transversely within round-angled drystone rubble walls 1m in average thickness; the entrance is near the centre of the S side-wall.

The burial-ground is said to have been chiefly devoted to the interment of unbaptized infants (OS Name Book 1878, 94; Grieve 1923, 2, 242), but its antiquity is shown by the existence of two carved stones of probable Early Christian date.

Carved Stones

(1) Carraig Mhic A' Phi ('MacFie's Stone'). This cross-decorated standing stone, which in local tradition is associated with the murder in 1623 of Malcolm MaeDuffie, last chief of the clan (Grieve 1923, 1, 323-4; Loder 1935, 131-2), stands in a railed enclosure 3m E of the NE angle of the building described above. It originally stood on a low knoll about 10m to the NE, with the carved face to the W, but was damaged by cattle in 1918 and, following its re-erection in 1934, was again knocked down about 1960. As the result of its reconstruction in 1977, it now stands, facing N and upside down, with about 0.5m of the original top concealed in a mortared rubble base. The accompanying drawing (RCAHMS 1984, No.317, A) is partly based on a photograph taken about 1870. The stone is a slab of Torridonian flagstone, much laminated in recent times; it is broken across, and the pieces have been joined with metal straps. Its height in the 19th century was about 2.45m, of which 0.6m was buried*, and it measures 0.45m in maximum width by 100mm in thickness. In the upper part there was carved a large cross with irregular grooved outline, having a rectangular boss in relief at the centre and slightly expanded arms. Only the side-arms and central part of the cross are now identifiable. (Photo by Revd J B Mackenzie, C.1870, in NMRS and reproduced in Loder 1935).

(2) A cross-marked stone was discovered in 1979 below the turf some 3m NE of the building, during the construction of the railed enclosure for MacFie's Stone, and it was reburied in the enclosure in 1981. It is a roughly shaped cruciform slab of Torridonian flagstone, measuring 1.01m in length by 0.42m across the arms and 0.35m in width across the shaft. Pecked out at the centre is a simple outline cross whose side-arms coincide with those of the slab. The visible outline of the top arm is longer than that of the shaft, but a natural channel on the central axis may have been considered as part of the latter.

RCAHMS 1984, visited October 1981.

*Grieve's statement that the stone was originally 4 or 5 feet (1.2m or 1.5m) higher is probably based on his identification of the upper arum of the cross as the lower part of a Crucifixion (Greive 1923, 2, 241 and 1, fig. 132 on p.270).

Former burial-ground in Pairc na h-Eaglais ('field of the church').

(1) Standing stone, associated with the murder of Malcolm MacDuffie in 1623; repaired in 1977 and re-erected upside-down near original site. It is 2.45m by 0.45m by 100mm and bears remains of a large outline cross with a rectangular central boss in relief.

(2) Rough cruciform slab found in 1979 and reburied. It is 1.01m by 0.42m across the stubby arms, and bears a pecked outline cross.

I Fisher 2001.