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Beinn an Teampuill, chapel & graveyard, Little Bernera

A Scheduled Monument in Sgir'Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch, Na h-Eileanan Siar

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Coordinates

Latitude: 58.2627 / 58°15'45"N

Longitude: -6.8603 / 6°51'37"W

OS Eastings: 115060

OS Northings: 940735

OS Grid: NB150407

Mapcode National: GBR 96GW.LGL

Mapcode Global: WGX1D.LLD3

Entry Name: Beinn an Teampuill, chapel & graveyard, Little Bernera

Scheduled Date: 20 January 2004

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Source ID: SM11088

Schedule Class: Cultural

Category: Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard

Location: Uig

County: Na h-Eileanan Siar

Electoral Ward: Sgir'Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch

Traditional County: Ross-shire

Description

The monument comprises a chapel within an enclosed, disused graveyard, as well as what may be the remains of a second chapel nearby. It is sited on the east side of the island of Little Bernera, on a small rise overlooking a sandy beach.

At the higher, S end of the graveyard are the turf-covered footings of a chapel orientated E-W and measuring approximately 6.3m by 3.2m internally. This has been partially cleared out, apparently in the early 1990s. About 30m to the NE on a low headland outside the graveyard are the amorphous footings of an indeterminate structure, possibly the second of two chapels that Martin Martin mentions being on Little Bernera in the late seventeenth century (dedicated to St Donnans and St Michael). Most of the burial markers are marked by simple head and foot stones. A later burial aisle has been built into the wall on the S side of the graveyard and there are a number of other more recent burial monuments. A nearby placename is Buaile Pabanish.

The area to be scheduled is subcircular on plan, measuring 78m from N to S by 70m transversely, to include the chapel, its graveyard, the possible second chapel and an area around in which evidence relating to their construction and use may survive, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract. Excluded from the scheduling are the above ground remains of the nineteenth-century and later burial aisles, the modern retaining sea wall, and all named burial monuments.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to provide information about the development of the church in the Western Isles. Given the nearby Pabay place-name, there is the possibility that there was an early medieval chapel on this site. There is also the potential to shed light on the interaction between natives and incoming Norse inhabitants, and their religious beliefs.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Other nearby scheduled monuments

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