St Ciaran's Cave

Visited by RCAHMS July 1965

The cave and contents are as described by the RCAHMS (1971).

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (JB) 23 October 1977.

NR71NE 1 7655 1707.

(NR 7655 1707) St Ciarans' Cave (NR).

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1924)

St Ciaran's Cave is the largest of a group of caves formed in the conglomerate rock composing the Achinhoan headland. The approach is by means of the foreshore, but access is difficult at high tide.

The cave is aligned on an E and W axis. It has a total length of about 40m and an average width of about 8m, but narrows sharply towards the inner end. The outer area of the floor is approximately level, but the inner sector slopes sharply upwards. The roof rises to a maximum height of about 12m.

The mouth of the cave was formerly sealed off by a transverse wall built of rubble masonry laid in lime mortar, a method of construction rarely used in the West Highlands before the 12th century. The wall has a thickness of about 0.9m and now rises to a maximum height of 2.1m at its S end.

The central floor-area of the cave shows considerable traces of disturbance, presumably as a result of the excavations conducted in 1924-5 (JBAA 1923). At the point A on the plan there may be seen what appear to be the footings of the SE corner of a small sub-rectangular building which has abutted the N wall of the cave, while traces of certain other structures, including an oblong stone-lined cavity measuring 1.98m in length by 1.37m in width, were found during the excavations mentioned above.

Set into the floor of the cave at the Point B on the plan (RCAHMS 1971) there is a stone trough or basin.

On the floor of the cave, a little to the E of the trough, there is a boulder measuring 0.76m by 0.46m which bears a circular incised decorat

ion on one face, and much of the carved surface is covered with incised initials of fairly recent origin. The decoration is found on Early Christian stones and metal work in Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland at dates ranging from the 7th to the 12th century (PRIA 1961). A sandstone slab lies on the floor of the cave in the immediated vicinity of the stone trough. It measures 0.94m by 0.48m over all, by 0.15m in thickness, and is pierced by a rectangular slot 0.41m in length and 0.06m in width. The slab is grooved and rebated as if to receive an inserted member.

At the point C on the plan what appear to be the mutilated remains of an incised carving can be seen on the rock face of the cave a little over a metre above ground level.

The cave is traditionally associated with St Ciaran, abbot of Clonmacnois and titular of the former parish-church of Kilkerran

(NR71NW 2).

JBAA 1923; PRIA 1961; RCAHMS 1971, visited 1965.

Cave, about 40m by 8m, in cliffs above a tidal shore.

(2) Boulder, 0.76m by 0.46m, bearing an incised hexafoil, with arcs linking the tips of the petals, within a T-fret border 0.65m in diameter.

(3) Slab, 0.94m by 0.48m by 0.15m, pierced by a socket 0.41m by 60mm with one rebated edge.

I Fisher 2001.