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South Uist, Howmore, South Chapel

Chapel (Medieval)

Site Name South Uist, Howmore, South Chapel

Classification Chapel (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Teampull Mor

Canmore ID 9873

Site Number NF73NE 1.04

NGR NF 75809 36447

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9873

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Western Isles
  • Parish South Uist
  • Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
  • Former District Western Isles
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NF73NE 1.04 7580 3644

Scheduled as 'Teampull Mor, chapel S of'.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

Activities

Field Visit (31 July 1924)

Church and Chapels, Howmore.

At the village of Howmore (en.1), situated on the western side of the island about 12 miles north of Lochboisdale, are the remains of an interesting group of ecclesiastical buildings, comprising two churches, which were dedicated respectively to St Mary and to St Columba (2), and two isolated chapels; a third chapel (NF73NE 1.05), observable in 1855, had been removed before 1866 (3). The buildings run slightly north of east and are arranged in echelon. They are rubble built in lime mortar. The largest (O.S. Teampull Mor; NF73NE 1.1) is the most westerly and is represented only by the eastern gable and the foundations of the other walls. It has been 66 feet in total length by 26 ¾ feet in width; the side walls are 2 feet 8 inches and the gables 2 feet 10 inches in thickness. The east gable contains two narrow windows side by side about 6 inches in daylight, with lintelled heads slightly segmental in farm; the rere-arches are semicircular and roughly formed with small stones; the window breasts are open. On either side of the windows is a small aumbry 2 feet 2 inches in breadth, 1 foot 4 inches deep, and 1 foot 7 inches high. (Fig. 161.)

Of the other church (O.S. Caibeal Dhiarmaid; NF73NE 1.03), likewise only the east gable remains, some 30 yards east of Teampull Mor; it has a single central window similar to those in the other church. Internally on the north side of the window is a rough corbel, probably for the altar, and on the south side an aumbry 10 inches high, 11 ½ inches broad, and 1 foot 2 ½ inches deep. This church has been 18 ¾ feet broad; the side walls have been 2 feet and the gable is 3 ½ feet in thickness.

The larger chapel (Fig. 159.; NF73NE 1.04) lies south of Teampull Mor. It is an oblong structure measuring 17 feet 2 inches by 11 feet 8 inches over walls 2 feet 8 inches in thickness. The entrance, which is in the east gable.,. has inclined jambs and measures 3 feet 2 inches in height, 1 foot 4 ½ inches in width at the top and 2 feet at the bottom. Above the entrance is a window only 3 inches wide and 1 foot 1 ½ inches high; there is a similar window in each of the side walls.

The remaining chapel (O,S, Caibeal nan Sagairt; NF73NE 1.02), the most easterly structure, is oblong on plan and measures 14 feet 11 inches by 8 feet internally; the walls are 2 ½ feet thick. The entrance, 2 ¾ feet wide and built with jambs slightly inclined, is in the east gable. The gables are steeply pitched and are complete; but the side walls are ruinous. In the north wall towards the west end has apparently been a recess. Traces of a window remain in the south wall.

ARMORIAL PANEL, ETC.

Against the inner face of the west gable of this chapel lies an armorial panel (NF73NE 1.06) with triangular head. It bears in relief in the dexter base a lymphad with rudder, central mast and sail set; above this is a hand couped bearing a wheel-cross. In the sinister base is a castle and above it a lion rampant; in the centre and surmounting the whole is a bird on a thistle slip. Beside the panel is a fragment of stone bearing six close set dog-tooth ornaments. (Fig. 122.)

RCAHMS 1928, visited 31 July 1924

OS map: South Uist l.

(1) Howmore was a parsonage pertaining to the Abbot of Iona. - Collect. de Rebus Alban, p. 3.

(2) Martin.

(3) Muir's Ecclesiological Notes, pp. 50, 51.

Reference (2001)

The remains of a group of churches and chapels stand at the N edge of the township of Howmore and about 750m from the W shore of South Uist. The name of the settlement incorporates the Old Norse haugr, 'a mound', but the location and age of this feature are not certain. The largest of the buildings, the Teampull Mor, whose E gable preserves two windows of 13th-century type, was the medieval parish church of South Uist, and Caibeal Dhiarmaid, whose footings lie in the burial-ground to the E of the church, was probably also of medieval date (i). A detached chapel to the S may be of post-medieval date, and another to the NE was probably the burial-aisle erected by John MacDonald of Clanranald (d.1574) (ii). A graveslab of late medieval type was recorded in the burial-ground in 1866 (iii), and a cross-marked slab lies in the ruin of Caibeal Dhiarmaid.

The cross-marked stone is a tapered slab of diorite, broken obliquely at the foot. It measures 0.68m by 0.36m at the head and is 75mm thick. On one face there is an equal-armed outline cross, 0.38m high, whose arms extend to the edges of the slab and whose foot is open. The surface is flaked but the cross has been defined by firm U-section grooves, and the armpits are slightly round and bevelled.

Footnotes:

(i) RCAHMS 1928, No.367. These were presumably the churches recorded by Martin (1934, 88) as being dedicated respectively to St Mary and St Columba.

(ii) A Cameron 1894, 170-1. A MacDonald armorial stone, which was stolen from this building in 1990 and recovered in 1995, is now in the heritage museum at Kildonnan. A smaller chapel of uncertain date, to the E of the burial-aisle, was removed between 1855 and 1866 (T S Muir 1885, 51).

(iii) T S Muir 1885, 51.

I Fisher 2001.

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