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User:Ben MacDui/sandbox

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Ben MacDui/sandbox
Scottish Gaelic nameEileach an Naoimh
Meaning of namerocky place of the saint
Beehive hut
Beehive hut
Location
Ben MacDui/sandbox is located in Argyll and Bute
Ben MacDui/sandbox
Ben MacDui/sandbox
Eileach an Naoimh shown within Argyll and Bute
OS grid referenceNM641098
Coordinates56°13′21″N 5°48′22″W / 56.2225°N 5.8060°W / 56.2225; -5.8060
Physical geography
Island groupGarvellachs
Area56 ha (138 acres)
Area rank188 [1]
Highest elevation80 m (262 ft)
Administration
Council areaArgyll and Bute
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Demographics
Population0[2]
Lymphad
References[3][4]

Eileach an Naoimh is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It is the second largest and southernmost of the Garvellachs archipelago and lies in the Firth of Lorn between Mull and Argyll. The name of the island is Gaelic for "rocky place of the saint" or from na-h-Eileacha Naomha meaning "the holy rocks".[3][5]

The island is known for its early Christian connections to Brendan the Navigator and Columba and for bedrock containing rare formations in relation to the global Sturtian glaciation. There is no ferry service, and transport to the island and its neighbours must be arranged privately.[6]

Map of Eileach an Naoimh

Geography and Geology

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The area of Eileach an Naoimh is 56 ha (138 acres) and the maximum height 80 m (262 ft). The eastern side is relatively low-lying but in the west the land rises and then drops "sheer into the Atlantic" in cliffs of metamorphosed limestone up to {[cvt|60|m}} in height.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). There is an anchorage on the south-eastern shore between the island and two offshore islets, although it is not recommended except in settled weather.[6] At the northern tip of the island is a natural arch called An Clàrsach (The Harp)[7] and there is a natural rock pillar some 4 m (13 ft) high called Columba's Pulpit or The Crannogg just north of the anchorage.[8] The whole archipelago is part of the Scarba, Lunga and the Garvellachs National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland.[9] The other members of the archipelago include Garbh Eileach, Dùn Chonnuill and A' Chùli.[10]

Eileach an Naoimh has been uninhabited "for many centuries".[3]

A 2024 study by researchers at University College London regarding the relationship of some of its bedrock to the Sturtian glaciation suggests the archipelago "may be the only place on Earth to have a detailed record of how the Earth entered one of the most catastrophic periods in its history."[11]

History

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Early Christian period

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According to Adomnán, the chronicler of the Life of Columba, about 542 Brendan the Navigator founded a monastery on Ailach, some years before Columba came to Iona.[5][3] Brendan is said to have been buried on A’ Chùli,[6] (which lies between Eileach an Naoimh and Garbh Eileach)[3] although no trace of his chapel there remains.[12]

Hinba

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Columba is also believed to have visited the island and it is one of the proposed locations of the Columban retreat isle of Hinba. Adomnán describes a settlement that may suggest a larger island than Eileach an Naoimh. Adomnán also refers to a place name associated with the island called Muirbolcmar, which is where the hermitage of Hinba was located. This name is Gaelic for the great sea-bag and its interpretation has proven to be controversial. Watson took the view that it is not an obvious description of anywhere on the rocky coast of Eileach an Naoimh and that Hinba must therefore have been elsewhere.[13]

However, Adomnán notes that Brendan the Navigator set sail from Ireland to visit Columba and found him en route at Hinba. The elderly Brendan might well have chosen to stop off at a monastic settlement he himself had founded many years before on the island of "Ailech". Ailech is "beyond reasonable doubt"[5] Eileach an Naoimh, suggesting that Hinba may have been Ailech continuing under another name.[14][15] However, Watson suggests that it is "most improbable" that Adomnan would have changed the name "Ailech", the use of which "probably" predates Columba's arrival in the Hebrides, to Hinba and points out that tiny Eileach an Naoimh is "fitted for a penitential station rather than for a self-supporting community such as Columba's monasteries were".[13] Undaunted, writing in 1973 W.H. Murray insisted the identification of this island with Hinba "is agreed by all authorities" including William Reeves (1857) and Skene (1876).[14][a]

Eithne's grave

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Eileach an Naoimh may also be the burial site of Columba's mother Eithne.[16][15][17] The supposed site, identified in 19th-century local tradition, is a circular enclosure about 3.2 m (10 ft) in diameter situated 130 m (430 ft) southwest of the main monastic ruins on a steeply sloping hillside. There is an outer stone kerb and two upright slabs close together, one of which is incised with a cross on the southwest face. The cross is equal-armed cross and the arms terminate in small circular expansions. A third upright slate slab sits 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) away. There are "extremely vague" records of the discovery of female remains in this area.[18]

Main enclosure

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The main ruins overlook the rocky landing place on the south coast, which is guarded by a line of skerries called Sgeirean Dubha. The landing place is called Port Chaluim Chille (the port of Columba's church) and the structures sit on raised beach terrace above it.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

The oldest remains on the site are the Clochain, Eithne's Grave, the walls of the pentagonal inner enclosure together with two walls blocking the approach gully, an underground chamber and the upper burial-ground. All of them appear to be of early Christian provenance and are most likely associated with a monastic settlement of the pre-Norse period.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[19] If the ruins date from the time of Brendan this would potentially make them the oldest extant church buildings in Britain, although the earliest written record of their existence dates from the late 9th century.

The monastery was destroyed by Viking raiders who were present in the area from about 800.[3]

The ruins of the monastic buildings include two chapels, beehive huts, and a graveyard with three crosses and another circular grave. These ruins are amongst the best-preserved early Christian monasteries in Scotland and the site is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.[20]


Early modern period

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The island remained a place of pilgrimage and burial after its abandonment and it was in the care of the Augustinian priors of Oronsay until the Protestant Reformation in 1560.[21] There is another burial ground immediately west of Port Chaluim Chille. It is 30m by 9m in size and surrounded by a low drystone wall. There are two drystone buildings in ruins at each end and several cists in the interior of the site. The date of the burials is unknown; the buildings are probably post-medieval.[22]

The island was inhabited again in the 17th century by tenants of the Duke of Argyll but although it was farmed until the 19th century there does not seem to have been any permanent inhabitation throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a corn-drying kiln north east of the chapel with a likely date of the late 18th or early 19th century.[23] Other uildings from this period include a barn and probably a ruin often incorrectly ascribed as the ‘monastery’.[21] The island's intermittent occupation since the Norse settlement of Scotland has likely contributed to the survival of the structures.[24][21]

"The remaining features described below date from the post-Reformation agrarian use of the island, in the 17th and 18th centuries by a small resident population and thereafter as an outlying part of the farm on Garbh Eileach (RCAHMS 1984 No. 421). They include a corn-drying kiln and winnowing-barn of 18th- or early 19th-century date, an enclosure or stack-yard (E) adjacent to the E boundary of the upper burial-ground, and successive additions to the so-called 'monastery', the last of these being associated with its conversion into a sheepfold in 1859. Two round-angled structures in the SW burial-ground, and others ((7) on the raised beach NW of the boat-landing, may be attributed to the same period.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Monro: Dunchonil, ane iyle so namit from Conal Kernache, ane strenth, wich is alsmeike as to say in Englishe, ane round castle.


  • {{cite book|Author-link=[[Donald Monro (Dean)|author-last=Monro|author first= Sir Donald|year=1549|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313003106/http://www.appins.org/martin.htm%7Ctitle=A Description Of The Western Isles of Scotland| Appin Regiment/Appin Historical Society. Retrieved 3 March 2007. First published in by William Auld, Edinburgh 1774.
  • Munro, R. W. (1961) Monro's Western Isles of Scotland and Genealogies of the Clans. Edinburgh and London. Oliver and Boyd.

New

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GE for GV A lease of 1817 allowed for the grazing of up to sixty cattle and 240 sheep on the islands of the group.(Mercer 1974) [25] may be ref nameGE


DC Canmore

Historical Note. Although not mentioned by name. Dun Chonaill was probably one of four castles known to have been held by Ewen (MacDougall) of Lorn from King Hakon of Norway in the middle of the 13th century. It is first named in 1343, when David II granted custody of the royal castles of Cairnburgh, lselborgh and Dun Chonaill, together with the lands and small islands pertaining to them, to John I, Lord of the Isles. Eleven years later John of Lorn relinquished his own claims to the same castles and in 1390 Donald, Lord of the Isles, granted to Lachlan MacLean of Duart various lands and castles, including half of the constabulary of the castles of Dun Chonaill and Dunkerd, together with lands in and near the Garvellachs. Nothing further is heard of Dunkerd, but 'the great castle of DunquhonIe' is included in a list of castles in the Western Isles compiled at about this time by the chronicler John of Fordun (n.2).

Dun Chonaill continued in the possession of the MacLeans until about the second quarter of the 17th century, when it passed to the Campbell Earls of Argyll, but although this period is comparatively well documented the castle has no record of military activity. Dean Monro, however, writing in 1549, noted the existence of 'ane Ile callit Dunchonill sa namet from Conill Kernoch ane strength, and alsmekle to say in English as ane round Castell'. Little mention is made of the castle by early travellers and the first detailed description of the site was published by Christison in 1889 (n.3).

The castle of Dunkerd, mentioned only in the document of 1390 referred to above, has not been identified. In view of Dunkerd's association with the Garvellachs, however, and the fact that its constabulary was united with that of Dun Chonaill, it is possible that the name may have been applied to the detached portion of the fortifications occupying the NE end of the island of Dun Chonaill (n.4).

John of Fordun (1872), writing about 1385, refers to it as "the great castle of Dunquhonle". (Information from A MacNaughton, Taynuilt).[26]

to the S of the [NE] knoll there may be seen the remains of four subrectangular buildings (P), while a fifth (Q) lies a short distance to the NE. The buildings vary in size from about 12m by 6m to 5m by 3m over walls some 1.2m in thickness and all are noticeably round-cornered both internally and externally; some appear to have been dwellings. Although considerably better preserved than the structures on the summit these buildings are probably of contemporary or near-contemporary date [i.e. medieval].[27]

  1. ^ Area and population ranks: there are c. 300 islands over 20 ha in extent and 93 permanently inhabited islands were listed in the 2011 census.
  2. ^ National Records of Scotland (15 August 2013). "Appendix 2: Population and households on Scotland's Inhabited Islands" (PDF). Statistical Bulletin: 2011 Census: First Results on Population and Household Estimates for Scotland Release 1C (Part Two) (PDF) (Report). SG/2013/126. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Haswell-Smith 2004, p. 67.
  4. ^ Ordnance Survey.
  5. ^ a b c Watson 1926, p. 81.
  6. ^ a b c Haswell-Smith 2004, p. 69.
  7. ^ Haswell-Smith 2004, pp. 67–68.
  8. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Eileach An Naoimh (22362)". Canmore. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  9. ^ "National Scenic Areas". Scottish Natural Heritage. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  10. ^ "Garvellachs (Isles of the Sea)". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  11. ^ Ghosh, Pallab (16 August 2024). "Scottish isles may solve mystery of 'Snowball Earth'". BBC. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  12. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Culbrandan, A' Chuli (22375)". Canmore. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  13. ^ a b Watson 1926, pp. 81–84.
  14. ^ a b Murray 1973, pp. 262–65.
  15. ^ a b Marsden 1995, p. 110.
  16. ^ Pallister 2005, pp. 120, 133.
  17. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Eileach An Naoimh (22364)". Canmore. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  18. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Eileach An Naoimh (22364)". Canmore. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  19. ^ "Jura National Scenic Area" Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine (2010) (pdf) Extract from: The special qualities of the National Scenic Areas. SNH Commissioned Report No.374. Scottish Natural Heritage. Retrieved 13 Feb 2011.
  20. ^ "Eileach an Naoimh". Historic Environment Scotland. Retrieved 15 Jan 2021.
  21. ^ a b c "Eileach an Naoimh: History". Historic Environment Scotland. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  22. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Eileach An Naoimh (22366)". Canmore. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  23. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Eileach An Naoimh (22367)". Canmore. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  24. ^ Pallister 2005, pp. 133–34.
  25. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Garbh Eileach (22376)". Canmore. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  26. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Garvellachs, Dun Chonaill (22374)". Canmore. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  27. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "GGarvellachs, Dun Chonnuill (86746)". Canmore. Retrieved 17 August 2024.


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