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Jura, Tobar Challuim-cille
Well (Medieval)
Site Name Jura, Tobar Challuim-cille
Classification Well (Medieval)
Canmore ID 38658
Site Number NR68SW 3
NGR NR 6102 8212
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38658
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Jura
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR68SW 3 6102 8212.
(NR 6102 8212) Tobar Challuim-chille (NR)
OS 6" map (1900)
This name, meaning "St Columba's Well", applies to a spring in rock a short distance SE of Cill Challuim Chille (NR68SW 4). Budge notes St Columba's Well as typical of the holy wells found near Celtic church sites.
Name Book 1878; D Budge 1960
Tobar Challuim-chille is in a small cleft in the rock, about 0.5m wide, at the foot of a cliff. It appears to be fed by dripping water collecting from the rock above. It is possible that the well has also been known as Our Lady's Well (see NR68NW 5).
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (JB) 12 May 1978
Field Visit (May 1981)
The remains of this chapel, which was dedicated to St Columba (Gaelic, Calum Cille), are situated on level ground about 130m N of Tarbert Bay. The walls of the existing rectangular enclosure appear to be of 19th-century date, and there are no identifiable remains of an earlier enclosure. The chapel measures 7.8m from E to W by 3.4m transversely within walls about 1m thick whose inner face is preserved to an average height of 0.9m. Entrance was by a doorway 0.8m wide in the S wall, and against the E wall there are traces of the base of an altar.
The burial-ground contains a number of uninscribed slabs of slate and simple upright grave-markers, the earliest inscribed stone dating from 1809. Local tradition records the discovery of 'stone coffins and tombs in the vicinity of the chapel and of the standing stone (NR68SW 2, RCAHMS 1984, No. 122), but the precise location and nature of these burials are not known.
Cross-Marked Stone. Some 8m W of the chapel, and just inside the W boundary of the enclosure, there is a standing stone of local green schist measuring 0.43m by 0.13m at the base and 1.9m in height. This stone may be of prehistoric origin, like that situated 290m to the WNW (NR68SW 2), but it is doubtful whether it is in situ. Both faces bear sunken Latin crosses, 1.0m in height and rising from slightly expanded bases. The cross on the E face (a) is formed by shallow grooves 70mm wide, with the intersection of the arms left uncut as a simple square boss, while that on the W face (b) has been severely damaged by flaking.
Tobar Chaluim Chille ('St Columba's Well'). This well, described in 1878 as 'a spring in rock . . . a few chains south east' of the chapel, could not be identified at the date of visit in the position apparently indicated on the Ordnance Survey map (NR 610 821). (Ordnance Survey Name Book Argyllshire, sheet 178, 1897-8) A small marshy spring is situated about 5m S of the SE angle of the burial-ground.
RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1981.
