Monument record 1027 - SAINT MICHAEL'S CHAPEL, GRIMSAY

NF58SE 1 8817 5480.

(NF 8817 5480) St Michael's Chapel (NR) (In Ruins)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

The ruins of St Michael's Chapel on Grimsay are on a small plateau on the highest point of a promontory. They are oblong, 23ft 2ins by 13ft 8ins, within walls 28 to 30ins thick. In 1915 the west gable was about 8ft hight.
The chapel stands in an enclosure, 63ft by 54ft, 'evidently once serving as a graveyard but disused for many years'. (E Beveridge 1911) The foundations of the boundary wall are overgrown with grass.
The foundation of the chapel is attributed to Amie MacRuari (c.1350-90). About 150 yds to the north-east, A A Carmichael (1871) noted 'another chapel and burying ground upon another point of land jutting into, but only a few feet above the level of, the sea. There was hardly any traces of this chapel and I have hitherto failed even to ascertain the name.' Beveridge saw no remains.
A A Carmichael 1871; F W L Thomas 1890; E Beveridge 1911; RCAHMS 1928.

St Michael's Chapel and its surrounding enclosure are as described by the above authorities.
The north, south and east walls of the chapel are now only about 0.5m high.
There is no trace of the other chapel and burying ground mentioned by Carmichael.
Visited by OS (R D) 8 June 1965.

St Michael's Chapel and burial ground, Kallin, a medieval structure, was largely as described in the NMRS. It occupied a terraced, flattened platform on a knoll at the summit of a steeply sloping promontory overlooking Kallin harbour. The platform measured 17.8m (east to west) and 17m (north to south) shelving off downhill on the northwest side. The edges of the platform presumably represent the boundary wall mentioned in the NMRS account. Stones, possibly grave markers, were scattered across the platform. The remains of the chapel measured 8.5m x 5.1m, alilgned east to west, with the walls now no more than 0.4m high, mostly less, except for the western short wall, which survived to 2m in height. The structure was composed of rough-hewn gneiss blocks, on average 0.4m x 0.4m x 0.3m, with smaller irregular slabs and fragments intervening. Traces of coarse lime mortar, in which shell fragments were obvious, were noted.
Fyles 2006, 10

A A Carmichael, 1868-70, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 277 (Bibliographic reference). SWE518.

Thomas, F. W. L., 1890, Archaeol Scot, 244-5 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7756.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 279-80 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 47, No. 159 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Chris Fyles, SUAT Ltd, 2006, Archaeological Walkover Survey, AIRD, Benbecula (Unpublished document). SWE41084.