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Jura, Tarbert, Cill Chalium-chille

Burial Ground (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval)

Site Name Jura, Tarbert, Cill Chalium-chille

Classification Burial Ground (Early Medieval) - (Medieval), Chapel (Early Medieval) - (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Tarbert Church; Cill Chaluim Chille

Canmore ID 38659

Site Number NR68SW 4

NGR NR 60910 82203

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38659

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

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Jura
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR68SW 4 6090 8220

See also NR68SW 2 and NR68SW 5.

(NR 6090 8220) Cill Challuim-chille (NR)

Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map (1900)

Budge names the burial ground "Kilmhoire" while Fasti notes a St Mary's Chapel on Jura (cf NR68SW 3). The ruins of the church and also the church house may be seen within the churchyard.

H Scott 1923; D Budge 1960

The name 'Cill Challuim-chille' applies to an old burial ground, whithin which are the ruins of a pre- Reformation chapel (dedicated to St Columba) (Name Book 1878). In 1931, all that could be seen of the chapel was a rectangular excavation in the graveyard, about 36ft E-W by 18ft with indications of a doorway in the S side, some 9ft from the W end. This hollow, however, was so irregular, in common with the rest of the graveyard, that these dimensions can only be regarded as approximate. No trace of stonework was seen.

(See also NR68SW 2).

E H Rideout 1932

Activities

Field Visit (12 May 1978)

The chapel of Cill Challuim-chille has been cleared and preserved. It measures 6.9m E-W by 3.5m within a coursed drystone wall 1.2m in average width. The wall stands to 0.8m high, capped by turf and heather. The entrance, on the south side, is 2.0m from the SW corner. Further early remains may lie under a low mound to the SE of the chapel. The earliest dated graveslab in the burial ground is early 19th century.

According to the Jura minister (P Youngson), dedications to St Columba and St Mary (Kilmhoire) have been applied to the chapel. Which is earlier cannot be stated with certainty; the Columban dedication is currently the more commonly used.

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.

Measured Survey (1981 - 1982)

RCAHMS surveyed the chapel at Cill Chaluim Cille at a scale of 1:100, and produced a detailed drawings of both faces of the cross-marked stone. Each of the drawings was reproduced in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, figs. 162A-C).

Reference (2001)

Chapel of St Columba in rectangular enclosure. A standing stone, 1.9m by 0.43m by 0.13m, bears on each face a sunken Latin cross 1.0m high with an expanded base and square central boss.

I Fisher 2001.

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