Monument record 1323 - CILL AISEAM, RUISGARRY, BERNERAY

NF98SW 4 9282 8263.

(NF 9282 8263) Site of Cill Aiseam (NR) Graveyard (NAT)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Martin mentions two chapels in Berneray, St Asaph's (Cill Aiseam) and St Columbus'. He also refers to a stone erected near the former, 8ft high and 2ft thick. All traces of the chapel had disappeared by 1870, and the stone was broken into two parts c.1820, the pieces utilised as door-lintels. Carmichael was successful in tracing the upper half and getting it removed. It is a piece of carved gneiss 3ft 8ins x 1ft 7ins x 3ins, and is now in the NMAS.
The second half has been lost. It was said that the base of the obelisk was surrounded by a heap of pebbles, old coins, bone pins, and bronze needles - all offerings at the shrine of St Asaph. Cultivation on the site has also yielded up a number of bones.
M Martin 1934; A A Carmichael 1871; RCAHMS 1928; J R Allen 1903.

No traces of the Chapel exist, and no local information concerning the site was obtained.
Visited by OS (R D) 20 June 1965.

The carved stone fragment removed to the NMAS was decorated with a square panel of key-pattern incorporating a central saltire with an adjacent rectangular panel of double beaded interlacing consistant with an Early Christian monument.
KM (Arch Service CnES) 30/08/2023

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 47 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

A A Carmichael, 1868-70, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 280-2 (Bibliographic reference). SWE518.

Joseph Anderson, 1903, The early Christian monuments of Scotland, 113, fig. 117 (Bibliographic reference). SWE403.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 38, No. 115 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.