Building record 1348 - ST CLEMENT'S CHURCH, RODEL, HARRIS

NG08SW 7 0475 8318.

(NG 0475 8318) St Clement's Church (NR).
OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

St. Clement's is considered to be the most outstanding church building in the Hebrides (A A MacGregor 1949). Muir tentatively suggests a 13th century date (T S Muir 1885) for the original, oblong, single apartment building, which was enlarged in the late 15th or early 16th century (A A MacGregor 1949) The dedication is possibly to Clement, Bishop of Dunblane (E. 13th century). Restorations apparently took place in the years 1784, 1787 and 1873 (A A MacGregor 1946). Easson sees no reason to regard this as other than a parish church, despite allegations that it was once a monastic foundation (D E Easson 1957). The interior of the church is remarkable for possessing one of the finest tombs in Scotland (16th century), in addition to carved slabs and a disc-headed cross (RCAHMS 1928). A brass chalice-shaped cup was found in the churchyard.
RCAHMS 1928; T S Muir 1885; A Ross 1885; A A MacGregor 1946 and 1947; D E Easson 1957; D Murray 1897.

St Clement's Church, as described and illustrated, and now under guardianship.
Visited by OS (N K B) 4 July 1969.

The monument known as St Clement's Church, Rodel comprises a mediaeval church and the burial ground enclosing it. It is cruciform in plan, with a tower at the west end and chapels occupying the two transepts. It measures about 23m E-W by some 19m across the N and S transepts. The church lies within a burial ground, which contains several 18th century burial enclosures and is defined by a stone wall. The area to be scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to be found. It is irregular, with maximum dimensions of 85m from its northern most point to its southernmost point and 77m from its easternmost point to its westernmost point, defined by the outer face of the stone wall enclosing the burial ground. All lairs with existing burial rights area excluded from scheduling.
Historic Scotland schedule entry 17.3.2000

DES 2001: NB 4861 A minor excavation was undertaken in November 2000 in the graveyard at St Clements Church (NMRS NB 46 SE 7), in order to accommodate three lightning conductor base plates. The proposed works involved the digging by hand of three trenches, each 1m in depth. The trenches were positioned around the outside of the church to take account of the new lightning rods on the tower and transepts. They were placed in such a way as to avoid known graves, especially current ones.
The three trenches provided keyholes into the deposits around the church. A certain uniformity of material and burial depth was found to exist in all excavated areas. Each trench revealed unmarked burails at a depth of approximately 1m, cut into very dark greay, peaty silt. Each trench failed to turn up any dating evidence from finds. The sub-surface masonry of the church appears to be in good condition.
Sponsor: HS
D Stewart and G Ewart 2001, 100

NB THE GRID REFERENCE, NMRS NUMBER AND PARISH ARE WRONG FOR THIS DES ENTRY - THEY REFER TO TEAMPALL CHLIAMAIN (ST CLEMENTS) IN DELL, NESS, A PRE-REFORMATION CHAPEL SITE, NOW UNLOCATED. RCB 12/2/08

Local information regarding stone grave marker with a hole in the church yard suggest that this may originally have been removed from Northton by Norman MacCuish, whose grave it now marks.
Carol Knott 15.6.2006

A Ross, 1884-5, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 118-32 (Bibliographic reference). SWE6525.

T S Muir, 1885, Ecclesiological notes on some of the Islands of Scotland, 45 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5959.

D Murray, 1897b, Trans Glasgow Archaeol Soc, 214-5 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE5831.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 32-37 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

A A MacGregor, 1946, Country Life, 482 illust. 481, 482 (Bibliographic reference). SWE13339.

A A MacGregor, 1949, The Western Isles, 125 (Bibliographic reference). SWE11899.

D E Easson, 1957a, Medieval Religious Houses in Scotland, 85 (Bibliographic reference). SWE1337.

J N G and M Ritchie and Harman, 1985, Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Argyll and the Western Isles, 117-19, no. 49 (Bibliographic reference). SWE6206.

A McIntosh, 1992, The Scotsman (Bibliographic reference). SWE39802.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2001, Discovery and Escavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41185.