  The number of single churches scattered over the islands and the adjoining mainland has at one time been very large. Many of these are now reduced to mere traces, but the ruins of a considerable number still exist in tolerable preservation. We shall consider these in several sections, in accordance with their different characteristics. The simplest type is first described, but the age of the structures is not thereby indicated. 1. Churches built in the simple Celtic style of one oblong chamber. A few of these structures are evidently very ancient, the walls having been built without cement, or having doors with inclined jambs. These will be first described. 2. They will be followed by a long list of churches on the same general plan, but in which some modifications of the original arrangement of one door and one window are introduced. The number of windows is often increased; but they are not arranged on a uniform plan, being generally distributed so as to suit the locality. The windows were no doubt open and unglazed, and seem to have been placed so as to be well sheltered, and as little exposed to the prevailing wind as possible. In some cases there is no window even in the east gable, and the west and north walls are frequently blank. In most examples the windows and doors are narrow and flat-headed, but round-headed doors and windows are also occasionally used, showing the Norman influence. These structures all belong more or less to the primitive type of Celtic churches, but their primitive features cannot be relied on as fixing their date. Some may be very early, while others may be later even than the pointed buildings to be afterwards described. The primitive type and primitive features, such as narrow flat-headed windows and doors, undoubtedly continued in use long after more advanced forms had been introduced. 3. A more reliable mark of the order of succession of these early churches is the existence of an architecturally distinguished chancel. At what point in the development of the architecture this feature was introduced it is impossible to say; but from the extremely rude nature of the other elements in such examples as that at Lybster in Caithness (described below), it must clearly have been at an early period. We there find the plan of nave and chancel combined with such primitive features as a low west doorway, with inclining jambs and flat lintel, and the opening to the chancel from the nave shaped exactly like the west doorway. 4. Examples are also found of the addition of a chancel or nave to an older simple oblong church, thus showing that the chanceled church was a later form of plan than the primitive single-chambered church. The examples of these ancient churches with added chancel or nave will be first given, and then the churches built on the plan of nave and chancel. 5. In many instances the use of the pointed arch and ornaments of Gothic character is quite distinct. These churches are evidently of a date between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Although in other parts of the country first pointed work would be assigned to the thirteenth (A) CHURCHES DRY-BUILT AND CHURCHES WITH SLOPING JAMBS.TIGH BEANNACHADH, Lewis.Numerous ruins and fragments of chapels are found on the west coast of Lewis. Among these, near Gallowhead, the great west headland of the island, stands (Fig. 43) Tigh Beannachadh (blessing house), “a not greatly dilapidated chapel [a simple oblong], internally 18 feet 2 inches in length [by 10 feet 4 inches], with a broken east window, having an altar beside it and a doorway, and a niche in each of the side walls; the DUN OTHAIL, Lewis.On a narrow “shelf, in the face of a high precipice, under Dun Othail, about ten miles south of the Butt, is found the ground work of a chapel, internally 17 feet long and 11 feet 3 inches wide, with remains of the south doorway. The walls are 4 feet thick, and there is no cement used.” CARINISH, North Uist.At the south end of the island, Teampull-na-Trianaide (Trinity Church) consists of two not greatly dilapidated buildings of unequal size, the larger and more ruinated one internally 62 feet in length. The only detail, a broken round-headed doorway near west end of north wall. Connected with it on that side by a low semi-circular vaulted passage (Fig. 44), lighted by a small flat-headed window on each side, is the other chapel, (B) SIMPLE OBLONG CHURCHES WITH MODIFIED FEATURES.1. CARA, off Gigha, Kintyre. A chapel, 29 feet long externally; masonry rude, but with a good deal of character. East and west ends nearly entire. Doorway about middle of north side. Window in north wall 3 feet 4 inches long and flat-headed. (Fig. 45.) No opening in east end. 2. EILEAN MUNDE, Lochleven.An island near the mouth of Glencoe, containing ruins of a church internally 50 feet long, with two flat-headed windows in south side and one in north side. East end blank. 3. CHURCH OF HOLY CROSS, South Galston, Lewis.Church, 18 feet 7 inches long by 12 feet wide. Windows flat-headed, one in east end and one in east end of both side walls; west end blank. Doorway, broken, is south-west. 4. TEAMPULL PHEADAIR, Lewis.Remains, 63 feet long externally. In east end a flat-headed window 3 feet 5 inches high and 6 inches wide; in south wall five windows of much larger size, and apparently of comparatively modern date. North side and west end blank. 5. ST. AULA, Gress, Lewis.Church, 18 feet 10 inches long by 14 feet wide, slightly dilapidated. One window narrow and flat-headed in west end, and in south wall flat-headed door and window. Over door a stone with date 1685, in which year the building probably underwent repairs. 6. TOEHEAD, Harris.Church, internally 21 feet by 10 feet 2 inches. Windows, one in east end, one in west gable, one in south wall, and one, together with doorway, in north wall, are mere flat-headed slits, the east one 8 inches wide. Under east window stone altar, still entire. 7. NUNTOWN, Benbecula.A small chapel, externally 25 feet by 16 feet, within enclosed burying-ground, almost perfect shell, windows small, narrow, and flat in head, two in each side and one in east end; the latter 19 inches high and 5 inches wide. Doorway, a rude flat-headed aperture, surmounted by a square niche, is in west end. 8. PABBA, Sound of Harris.Ruins of St. Mary’s Chapel, externally 40 feet 9 inches in length and 19 feet 9 inches wide. Doorway flat-headed, 2 feet 2 inches wide, in west end. Above it, narrow flat-headed window, and a similar window near east end of both side walls. 9. KILMUIR, Skye.Church of “considerable age,” much altered. Doorway and windows small, flat-headed, and deeply recessed inside. Arched recesses in side walls for tombs. 10. TRUMPAN, Skye.Old chapel, 51 feet long externally. In east end one short narrow window and two in north wall, all flat-headed. Rudely arched doorway in north elevation. The following show signs of Norman influence.11. ST. CARMAIG, Kiels, Knapdale. The church is a rudely constructed oblong, externally 42 feet in length by 21 feet in width, roofless. Windows—one close to east end of north wall, two in south, and one with round arch in middle of east elevation. (Figs. 46, 47.) West wall blank. Windows flat except east one. 12. KILMORY, Knapdale.Church, rudely constructed oblong, internally 38 feet in length by 17 feet in width. Walls well preserved. Doorway near west end of south wall. Four windows; one near east end of side walls, and two together in east elevation. Side windows small rectangular apertures; east one slightly moulded and semi-circular top. 13. TIREE (Ithica Terra of Adamnan).Kirkapoll.—A very rudely-constructed chapel, internally 36 feet 9 inches long. In west end a plain round doorway (Fig. 50), 6 feet high, rudely arched with slates, and having a small Latin cross on its south side. In south wall a round-headed door and two round-headed windows, with great splay internally (Fig. 51); the north elevation blank. On a neighbouring hillock there is another chapel, internally 23 feet 5 inches long, with walls and gables entire. The windows are round-headed, one in north wall and one in south, and doorway in south wall; east and west walls blank. Kilchenich, Tiree.—Ruined chapel, 33 feet 5 inches long. Only details—small round-headed doorway in west end. (C) CHURCHES WITH A CHANCEL OR NAVE ADDED TO AN OLDER STRUCTURE.1. ST. COLUMBA, Balivanich, Benbecula.Occupying a swampy spot, formerly the bed of a lake, are remains of a chapel probably belonging to the monks of Iona. Externally 56 feet in length and 19 feet in width. (Fig. 52.) All the windows are flat-topped and narrow; one in east end, three in south wall, and one in north wall. East wall only is perfect. Fig. 52.—St. Columba, Balivanich. Plan. Was built in a remote age. The mortar is washed out of the joints. The only door is at north end, with inclined jambs, and so low as to require stooping position on entrance; 4 feet 7 inches high; covered with undressed lintel. Little rectangular windows like portholes. Chancel 14 feet long by 15 feet broad; nave 33½ feet long and 14 2. EILEAN MOR.A small island lying off the Knapdale coast. “A little way up from the landing-place stands the half-roofless, though in other respects scarcely at all ruinated, shell of ‘Kilvicoharmaig, the Mother Church of Knapdale,’ surrounded by an open and nearly obliterated burying-ground. Its external plan (Fig. 53) is a simple oblong, measuring 37 feet 5 inches in length and 20 feet in width. Internally the building is divided into chancel and nave, the division being a gabled wall open by a semi-circular arch composed of long thin slates. An apartment, which was probably a comparatively modern contrivance, appears to have gone over the nave, as there is a fireplace and chimney in the upper part of the west wall, not bearing marks of antiquity. “The chancel is covered by a low waggon vault, between which and the external roof there is a chamber lighted by a square window in the apex of the west gable. In the east end of the chancel (Fig. 54) are two small round-headed windows placed considerably apart, the north one, like the window at the neighbouring Kiels, having its interior sill underdrawn and levelled for an altar. “In the interior south wall is a large round-headed recess, containing the tomb and headless effigy of an ecclesiastic, and in the wall opposite are two smaller recesses of the same kind—the eastern one having a window behind and a square lychnoscopic-looking aperture on one side near the ground. “The chancel evidently belongs to an early period, and in style mostly resembles Norman, though some alterations (designed, there can be no doubt, to procure more shelter) have somewhat modified the pristine character of its detail. Originally the entrance was by a round doorway in the north side of the nave; but this has been built up, and another one, square and smaller, opened through the wall opposite. The window lights have all been reduced by the inserting of a slate pierced with a short and narrow lancet—that on the south, in the east end, plain pointed, the other one trefoiled. But the most important alteration is in the chancel arch (Fig. 55), which has been lessened by blocking to a small flat-topped doorway with a square hole right through the wall on each side of it; over each of these holes, within the chancel, is an ambry of the usual square form.” In a recess among the rocks are remains of a rectangular building, measuring internally 11 feet 3 inches by 10 feet 10 inches—the walls rudely built without cement, and more than 4 feet in thickness. This is is a narrow flat-headed doorway of primitive character in the east wall. This structure communicates with a natural cave, and probably existed as a religious cell long before the neighbouring Kilvicoharmaig was erected. 3. ST. COLUMBA’S, Ey., Lewis.A long narrow building of two compartments, divided by a thick wall, containing arched passage. Eastern compartment internally 62 feet in length by 17 feet in width; western one 23 feet by 16 feet 3 inches. Different parts erected at different times from character of masonry. In eastern or larger compartment, windows are mere flat-headed slits, flush outside, widely splayed inside; east one 4 feet 4 inches by 7½ inches; south one 3 feet 8 inches and only 3 inches wide. In western division masonry less primitive looking; resembles Norman. Windows—one in 4. ST. COLUMBA, Kiels, Kintyre.Long narrow building, with small round-headed windows and doorway in side walls only. Length outside 75 feet 3 inches; width only 18 feet 10 inches; unbonded juncture 29 feet from east end, shows that chancel has been extended to west; masonry of usual rude description; stones of added part are squared and like Norman work. Plain round-headed doorway on south-west, and two or three small round-headed single windows. 5. KILCHOUSLAN, near Campbeltown, Kintyre.Chapel, rather more than 58 feet in length, nearly entire; all apertures square-headed. North wall blank; seems to have been lengthened by about 20 feet; fissure at junction similar to that at Kiels. [We give Plan and View (Fig. 56, 57) of this church, originally 36 feet 7 inches long by 17 feet wide internally. The and windows are square-headed and built with freestone, now much decayed; the remainder of the walls is built with whinstone. The added chancel is marked by the freestone corners of the east end of the original church, which still exist. The chancel measures 19 feet in length by 17 feet in width. The east wall is now demolished.] 6. KILCHENZIE, near Campbeltown, Kintyre.[We also give Plan and View of this structure (Fig. 58, 59). A simple oblong church, 40 feet 11 inches long by 17 feet 3 inches wide internally, with one round-headed window, 6 inches wide, cut out of a single stone in south wall. A chancel, 27 feet 4 inches long by 17 feet 3 inches wide, has been added, of which the junction is quite apparent. One small pointed window in east end of chancel.] |
|
