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Lewis, Teampull Eoin

Cemetery (Medieval), Church (15th Century), Settlement (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Site Name Lewis, Teampull Eoin

Classification Cemetery (Medieval), Church (15th Century), Settlement (Prehistoric)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) 'Church Of St John The Baptist In Bragar'; St John's Chapel; Teampull Eoin, Chapel, Graveyard And Settlement; Port Mhor Bragar

Canmore ID 4191

Site Number NB24NE 3

NGR NB 28833 48905

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/4191

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Western Isles
  • Parish Barvas
  • Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
  • Former District Western Isles
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Recording Your Heritage Online

Bragar Bordered by the seams of worked crofts, the road to Port Mhor Bhragair terminates with an old graveyard and the ruin of: Teampall Eoin (St. John's Church), possibly 15th century A variation on the standard, simple Hebridean medieval chapel, with a narrower chancel projecting beyond its nave; gables more or less intact. Dun

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

Archaeology Notes

NB24NE 3 28833 48905

(NB 2882 4890) Teampull Eoin (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6"map, (Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1898)

'Church of St John the Baptist in Bragar'.

(M Martin 1934).

Teampull Eoin (John), a ruin within a graveyard, consists of a nave and chancel, built of rough rubble and orientated nearly NW and SE.

The nave measures internally 19ft 9 ins by 11ft, with walls from 2ft 5ins to 3ft 5ins thick. The gables are 11ft 2 ins from floor to apex, and the side walls are 6ft high. It is entered by a door in the west end of the south wall.

The chancel, measuring internally about 9ft long by 6ft 10 ins wide, is lower than the nave, reaching only to a height of 7ft 4 ins at the gable.

The building may be of 15th century date.

(RCAHMS 1928, visited 1928).

Teampull Eoin occupies a knoll within the enlarged grave-yard and is as described by the Commission, except that the arch shown in the photograph is now tumbled.

Visited by OS (R L) 17 June 1969.

Scheduled as Teampull Eoin, chapel, graveyard and settlement, Port Mhor Bragar... the ruins of a later medieval church and its graveyard, the extended pre-20th century graveyard and an underlying prehistoric settlement mound.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 10 February 2005.

This chapel site was included in a research project to identify the chapel sites of Lewis and surrounding islands. The Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites survey recorded 37 such sites.

R Barrowman 2005

Activities

Field Visit (29 June 1914)

Kitchen Middens, Teampull Eoin.

A recently dug grave showed that there are kitchen middens in the burying ground and on the narrow shelf between the enclosing wall and the eroded face above the sea-shore. These contain food refuse and numerous fragments of pottery, as well as many stones, probably the remains of hut circles. There are many fine fractured pot boilers about, and a hammer stone and a small stone disc (pot-lid ?) were also turned up.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 29 June 1914.

OS map: Lewis viii (unnoted).

Field Visit (30 June 1921)

Teampull Eoin ('John'), Bragor.

Within a graveyard on the eastern shore of Port More, Bragor, and ¾ of a mile north of Bragor village, is the ruin of Teampull Eoin. It consists of a nave and chancel built of rough rubble, and the main axis lies nearly north-west by south-east, being 24 degrees from the direction of true east and west. The nave dimensions average 19 feet 9 inches by 11 feet internally, with walls from 2 feet 5 inches' to 3 feet 5 inches in thickness. The gables are 11 feet 2 inches from floor to apex, and the side walls 6 feet high. It is entered by a door in the west end of the south wall, the west jamb, which has been checked, only remaining with square sconsions. A single flat-headed window, 3 feet 9 inches from floor to sill and 2 feet II inches high by4 inches externally, splayed inwardly to a width of I foot 8 inches, is placed in the centre of the west gable. An opening through the 3-foot wall at the east end of the nave, the full width of the chancel and very much broken, has no doubt been the chancel arch, which seems to have had its springing about 2 feet 3 inches from the present floor level. The chancel, measuring internally about 9 feet long by 6 feet 10 inches wide, is lower than the nave, reaching only to a height of 7 feet 4 inches at the gable, which has in the centre a window 1 foot 1 inches from the floor and 3 feet high by 9 inches wide outside. Two small recesses 1 foot high by 1 foot wide by 1 foot 3 inches deep are in the walls at ground level, one in the north-east and one in the south-west of the chancel. The building may be of 15th century date.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 30 June 1921.

OS map ref, Lewis viii

Casual Observation (2006)

NB 28843 48882 5m from the E gable of the Teampall are three grave markers with pierced holes, which are clearly former roof slates with wooden peg holes, and the possibility exists that these are from the former roof ot the Teampall, which would indicate that the roof was slated.

J Crawford 2006

Project (March 2007 - February 2008)

Walkover, topographical and geophysical surveys were undertaken between March 2007 and February 2008 at two sites the W side of the Isle of Lewis.

NB 2882 4890 – Tempall Eoin, Bragar – Topographic survey was carried out of the chapel building and later enclosures, before further collapse of the chapel’s walls. The survey also recorded over 2,000 unmarked gravestones in the old cemetery around the Teampall. A detailed contour survey of the sandy mound into which the chapel is set was carried out, different alignments of grave slabs were identified, and the locations of roofing slates from the ruined chapel which had been reused as grave markers were noted. Topographic survey had also been planned at Tigh a’ Bheannaich, Aird Uig, but was cancelled due to storms.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Historic Scotland and Glasgow University

Rachel C Barrowman (Glasgow University), 2008

Note

Title: Chapel-sites on the Isle of Lewis: Results of the Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey

Journal: SCOTTISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTERNET REPORTS (e-ISSN: 2056-7421)

Author: Barrowman, R C

Publisher: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh

Date: 2020

MCE (2023): Reviewed as part of the GAPR. Publication was completed in 2020. Open Access publication with SAIR. Publication grant-aided by HES.

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