Monument record 1149 - SAINT COLUMBA'S CHAPEL, CLACHAN SANDA, NORTH UIST

NF87NE 9 8732 7649.

(NF 8732 7649) St Columba's Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

St Columba's Chapel is one of the two parish churches of North Uist mentioned by Munro in 1549 (OPS 1854). It is shown on Blaeu's map of 1654 as 'Kilchalmkil' and was in use until c.1794. (OSA 1794)
Indistinct traces of the S wall still remain much embedded in sand at the west side of its unenclosed burial-ground, which occupies the whole of a large mound.
E Beveridge 1911; Orig Paroch Scot 1854; OSA 1794.

There are no extant remains of St Columba's Chapel. The burial ground is now walled and still in use.
Visited by OS (N K B) 22 June 1965.

The burial ground is no longer used. Beveridge notes two unusual memorial stones, one a possible broken socket for the shaft of a stone cross (not observed)and the other a stone slab with a circular hole. This stone is extant. The hole is centrally located towards its base. The perforation is approx 0.008m in diameter. This stone is still in place but would be easy to miss as long grass will obscure the hole. The slab is located in a cental position on the south facing slope of the overall mound. It is adjacent to a family plot marked by concrete posts and a metal rail.
The southwestern end of the enclosed graveyard shows a secondary mound with a number of grave markers on top of it, this looks like an earlier buried structure.
K.Murphy (CnES Archaeologist) 21/07/2021

OSA, The Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. 13, 314 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5882.

OPS, 1854, Origines Parochiales Scotiae, 376 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9142.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 276-7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

Archas Cultural Heritage, 2024, Clachan Sands Archaeological Evaluation (Unpublished document). SWE41354.