Cill An Aonghais

With the exception of the inscribed cross, there is nothing to suggest any early date for this burial ground which is now disused. The dedication could not be confirmed.

Visited by OS (D W R) 27 June 1973.

This burial-ground is situated at the foot of a rocky hillside on the NW side of the B8024 road from Tarbert to Kilberry, 200m NE of the cottage of Kilnaish. Although the existing rectangular enclosure is bounded by a lime-mortared wall of 19th-century date, the early origin of the site is indicated by an Early Christian cross-marked stone (infra, number 1). The dedication was to Angus (Aonghus), possibly the saint who is commemorated at Balquhidder (en.1).

At the W boundary of the enclosure there is an open-roofed 18th-century mausoleum [NR76SE 4.01] measuring 6.lm from E to W by 5.5m within walls 0.6m thick and up to 2.9m high. The angles have rusticated quoins of polished schist, and those flanking the S facade, as well as the rusticated entrance-piers in that wall, are capped by ball-finials above a moulded cornice and bevelled coping. At the centre of the N wall there is a moulded surround with cornice enclosing a commemorative panel and flanked by two recessed panels within broad projecting frames (infra, number 4); all three surrounds bear identical mason's marks. At the centre of the E and W walls there were similar panels, apparently uninscribed and the latter now overlain by a series of marble tablets naming 19th-century members of the family of McNeill Campbell of Kintarbert.

FUNERARY MONUMENTS AND OTHER CARVEDSTONES. Numbers I and 5 are in the burial-ground, and numbers 2-4 inside the mausoleum. The burial-ground contains numerous plain headstones and slabs, some of which date from the 1720s (en.2).

EARLY CHRISTIAN

(1) [NR76SE 4.02] Pillar of schist, pointed at the foot, measuring 1.28m in length by 0.27m in maximum width and 80mm in thickness. On one face it bears an incised cross whose vertical bar has rounded terminals. Both ends of the horizontal bar are damaged, but at the left there are traces of a similar terminal.

POST-REFORMATION

(2) Recumbent slab of schist with incised marginal inscription commemorating Katrine Buchannan, spouse to Duncan McMillen of Dunmor, who died in 1707 aged 41 (en.3). A panel at the top contains an incised quotation beginning 'For I knou that my Redeemer liveth' (Job 19: 25-6). Below a worn shield within mantling and a label bearing the motto AUDACES IUVO ('I help the brave'), there are emblems of mortality and the inscriptions MEMENTO MORI ('Remember death') and FUGIT HORA ('Time flies').

(3) Several fragments of a slab similar in style to number 2, with incomplete marginal inscription naming ... GEILIS McFARLAN RELIK (widow) ... Another fragment bears a panel with a text beginning 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord' (Rev. 14, verse 13), and part of a shield charged with an engrailed saltire, and a cinquefoil in the sinister canton, for MacFarlane (en.4). Geills McFarlane and her husband Alexander MacMillan, heir apparent of Dunmore, received a grant of lands in 1667, probably on the occasion of their marriage. He died in prison after taking part in the 9th Earl of Argyll's rebellion in 1685, and his widow subsequently remarried (en.5).

(4) The central mural panel in the N wall of the mausoleum commemorates Ann, daughter of Duncan Campbell of Sunderland (Islay), spouse to Captain Duncan McNeill,6*who died in 1778 aged 40. The panel to the right names, in abbreviated form, five of their children who died in infancy between 1766 and 1777. The panel to the left is uninscribed.

(5) A headstone with shaped top commemorates Duncan Walker in Craig who died in 1760 aged 70. On the back neatly carved mantling encloses a shield bearing a mill-rind, square and dividers.

(6) The NE angle-quoin of the mausoleum bears a lightly incised inscription commemorating 'John Steuart of the Family of Ardsheal' who died in 1796.

RCAHMS 1992, visited June 1983

A small burial ground as described in the previous information. The incised cross measures 0.8m in height by 0.3m wide by 0.1m and stands within the burial ground.

Visited by OS (B S) 7 March 1977.

Burial-ground with 19th-century rectangular enclosure containing a pillar, 1.28m by 0.27m and pointed at the foot. It bears an incised Latin cross, 0.23m by about 0.14m, with rounded terminals.

I Fisher 2001.