Description

The complex of buildings and remains on Rona includes: the church, or chapel, of St Ronan, dating probably from the 8th century and consisting of a rectangular corbelled oratory with a longer rectangular living-cell, later used as a chapel, attached to its west side; an oval cashel wall of the same date, consisting of an earth and stone bank surrounding the chapel and its cemetery of inhumations, some marked by cross-incised headstones; three domestic complexes, inhabited from the 12th or 13th century until c. 1680 (and in some cases later), each one consisting of a rectangular living room surrounded by corbelled cells and open stock enclosures; a village field system surrounding all these features, and the head- dyke which encloses it. The area is defined by the head-dyke on the north, east and west, and by the sea on the south, and measures overall some 330m (east-west) by 420m (north-south), as shown in red on the accompanying plan.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because it comprises the best-preserved early Christian church building in Scotland and is of crucial significance for an understanding of the spread of Celtic monasticism in the Western and Northern Isles and of the eremitical lifestyle of its adherents; and because of the evidence that it provides, and has the potential to provide through excavation, for increasing our knowledge of the domestic architecture, material culture and socio-economic structures of remote island communities of west and north Scotland from the 12th century to the early 19th.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
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Source: Historic Environment Scotland