MHG12698 - St. Colomba's Chapel
Summary
No summary available.
Type and Period (2)
- CHAPEL (Early Medieval to 19th Century - 561 AD to 1900 AD)
- CEMETERY (Undated)
Protected Status
- None recorded
Full Description
(NC 644 6420) St Columba's Chapel (NR) (site of)
OS 6"map, (1964)
The site of St Columba's Chapel of which no trace remains.
Name Book 1873.
Ealan na Coomb or Ealan na Naoimph, island of saints, had a chapel and burial place, the traces of which are still to be seen.
OSA 1792.
'The island of St Comb or Eilean Neve, where a church dedicated to St Bride (d. 525) and a monastery dedicated to St Columba (d. 597) once stood. Their ruins cannot now be traced with any degree of certainty'. H Morrison 1883.
St Columba's chapel was consecrated in the days of the early Celtic church. H F Campbell 1920.
Neave or Coomb Island was given to Watson in Gaelic as Eilean na Neimhe, posssibly for 'Island of the Nemed' - ie. a pagan sacred place taken over by Christianity. W J Watson 1926.
No remains of the chapel or burial ground exist, although there is a disturbed but featureless area about 60 metres to the north of the published site. Visited by OS (J L D) 27 April 1960.
There are no remains of a chapel at the published site. About 50m north, at NC 6642 6428, near the bottom of a south-facing hillside, are the remains of a roughly circular enclosure of unknown date and purpose; it appears as a grass covered platform 14.0m across with traces of stonework on the south periphery and with a definite scarp, up to 0.6m high, on the north where it is cut back into the slope. Some 45.0m to the south-west on level ground, is a linear scatter of twenty or so squarish and slab-like stones in isolation.
Surveyed at 1:10 000. Visited by OS (J M) 23 August 1978.
Sources/Archives (5)
- --- SHG2022 Text/Publication/Volume: Campbell, H F. 1920. Caithness and Sutherland. 136.
- --- SHG2538 Text/Publication/Volume: Morrison, H. 1883. Tourist's guide to Sutherland and Caithness. 99.
- --- SHG2606 Text/Publication/Volume: Sir John Sinclair (ed.). 1791-9. The statistical account of Scotland, drawn up from the communications of the ministers of the different parishes. Vol. 3, 521.
- --- SHG2918 Text/Publication/Volume: Watson, W J. 1926. The history of the Celtic place-names of Scotland: being the Rhind lectures on archaeology (expanded) delivered in 1916. 246, 250.
- --- SHG3341 Text/Publication/Volume: Name Book (County). Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey. Book No. 11, 61.
Map
Location
| Grid reference | Centred NC 6644 6420 (200m by 200m) (2 map features) |
|---|---|
| Map sheet | NC66SE |
| Geographical Area | SUTHERLAND |
| Civil Parish | TONGUE |
Finds (0)
Related Monuments/Buildings (1)
Related Investigations/Events (0)
External Links (1)
- https://canmore.org.uk/site/5793 (View RCAHMS Canmore entry for this site)
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