Print

MHG12432 - Skerray Cemetery - Torrisdale

Summary

No summary available.

Type and Period (3)

Protected Status

Full Description

Suggestions that this is an early chapel site. 1st ed map missing. 2nd ed shows an elongated triangular shaped graveyard with building across the middle.

A rapid coastal zone assessment survey was conducted by GUARD in the Autumn of 1997 commissioned by Historic Scotland from the Viking and Early Settlement Archaeological Research Project based at the University of Glasgow.

This burial-ground is sandwiched between the modern road and the coast, and is irregular in form with four sides. The north wall is 37 m long and turns at the east to run SW for 36 m where the line is broken by a gate. This wall continues to the SW for 11 m after the gate, where a small section of the wall protrudes 2 m for a stretch 3 m long. After this the wall continues SW for 33 m before turning to the west to form the south wall which is 6 m long. The west wall runs S-N for 37 m before the line is broken by a 1.5 m wide gate. The wall continues S-N for 25 m to a 1.2 m wide gate and after that for 10 m to join the north wall. The walls of this enclosure are dry-stone built and survive to their original height. The north wall and the north ends of the east and west walls are concrete-capped and this may represent an area that is a later extension to the graveyard which has been added to the original area to the south. At the centre of the graveyard is the NMRS site (NC 66 SE 19) which is the Mackay of Skerray monument. This monument is within an enclosure which measures 7 m E-W by 3 m and is of stone-and-mortar walls of seven courses (1.1 m) high and 0.6 m wide. The south wall of this enclosure is collapsing to the south. The monument itself is located against the west wall of the enclosure and the entrance to it is in the east wall. The base of the monument measures 2 m by 1.4 m and the whole stands to 3.5 m high. The stone of the monument is being badly weathered. The modern enclosure may be on top of earlier features, orientated E-W, and so this could possibly represent the ephemeral remains of an early chapel-site. The other feature of note within this graveyard is a level area defined by very intermittent and low banks. This is partially below the Mackay monument and measures 28 m N-S on the west side, 13 m E-W on the S side and 18 m N-S on the east side. This could well be an earlier enclosure for the putative early chapel. <1>

NGR adjusted based on 2023 vertical aerial photographs. <2>

Note; the graveyard has been extended to the east since 2000. (TB 7/9/23)

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 6773 6205 (68m by 87m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC66SE
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	TONGUE

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (2)

Related Investigations/Events (1)

External Links (1)