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MHG5695 - Chapel - Sean Bhaile, A 'Chill, Muck

Summary

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Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

The site is now protected as a Scheduled Monument of National Importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act (1979) September 29 th 2004
DEH (23/01/06)

For burial ground see MHG42202
For cross slabs see MHG42205

NM47NW 1 4207 7953.

(NW 4207 7953) Burial Ground (NAT)
OS 6" map (1903)

No.690 Burial Ground, A'Chill.
At the head of the southern harbour, Port Mor, is a graveyard surrounded by a ruinous wall. The ruin of the chapel abuts on the enclosure; it has been an oblong structure with rounded corners measuring 20 1/2 feet from north-east to south-west by 10 feet from north-west to south-west within drystone walls 5 feet in thickness. The entrance, which is in the south wall, is only 2 feet 1 inch in width.
Cross-slab.- About the middle of the churchyard is a fragment of slate-slab, 1 foot 8 inches in height by 1 foot 3 inches in breadth, bearing a four-limbed cross set saltire-wise within an incised circle.
Visited by RCAHMS 7 July 1925

The burial ground, A'Chill, Port Mor, is surrounded by a ruinous wall with the remains of a chapel abutting on to it. This was an oblong building 20 1/2 x 10ft within drystone walls 5ft thick. The entrance was in the S wall. In the middle of the graveyard is a slate slab fragment bearing a four limbed cross, set saltire-wise within an incised circle. RCAHMS 1928

A burial ground still known as A'Chill, and still in occasional use. The footings of the surrounding wall survive around the W half, but cannot be traced elsewhere.
The remains of the chapel, oriented ENE-WSW, with measurements as recorded by RCAHM, stands to an average height of about 1.0m. Inside the church at the E end is a roughly circular weathered block of sandstone bearing a deep circular hollow, believed locally to be a font. The cross-incised slab 0.5m high by 0.3m wide and 0.1m thick is used as the headstone of a grave. It is greatly weathered and the cross is scarcely visible.
Enlargement at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (AA) 10 May 1972

This island measures about 4km from E to W by 2.4km. The burial-ground, A' Chill, is situated at the S end of the former township of Sean Bhaile (see MHG3188), and about 100m NW of the tidal N end of Port Mor, the principal landing-place of the island. It was enclosed by a drystone wall whose remains are preserved only to the W, and contains the drystone footings of a possible chapel. A knoll some 300m to the W is known as Cnoc na Croise ('mound of the cross') but the reason for the name is not known.
Two carved stones were formerly used as gravemarkers in the burial-ground (see MHG42205), but in 1993 they were moved for shelter to the craft shop on the E side of Port Mor.
I Fisher 2001

This chapel and burial-ground are situated on the leading edge of a terrace on the E flank of Cnoc na Croise, lying at the foot of the slope below the township of Kiel (MHG3188).
The chapel (Muck02 302) lies in the SE part of the burial-enclosure, towards the leading edge of the terrace. It is subrectangular on plan, measuring 6.1m from ENE to WSW by 3.1m within a faced rubble wall up to 1.5m in thickness and 1m in height. The entrance lies at the WSW end of the SSE side. The font has been moved into the School House.
The burial-ground is roughly oval on plan and measures about 28m from NNE to SSW by 21m transversely within a robbed stone wall. This has been reduced in places to little more than a scarp, and on the E is missing for a short distance. The interior of the burial-ground is packed with grave markers. There are thirteen memorials of 19th-century and later date, including two for sailors lost in the Second World War, and a tall pink granite pillar dedicated to islanders lost in a boating accident. A total of 115 undecorated markers, each comprising a water-rolled boulder or flat slab, can also be seen, the vast majority arranged in rows orientated roughly from NNE to SSW. The cross-marked boulder (Fisher 2001, 92, no.2, see MHG42205) stands more-or-less upright in one of these rows to the W of the chapel (NM 42080 79519). In addition, there are six heaps of stones, the largest measuring about 2m across and 0.5m in height. The ground to the W of the enclosure is rough and uneven, possibly indicating that the burial-ground once extended across the adjacent part of the terrace.
(Muck02, 302)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 18 May 2002

GIS spatial data created 2018 based on OS Master Map. <1>

Sources/Archives (3)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NM 4209 7951 (7m by 6m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NM47NW
Civil Parish	SMALL ISLES
Geographical Area	LOCHABER

Finds (1)

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

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