Monument record 1362 - ST KEITH'S CHAPEL, TARANSAY

NG09NW 7 0304 9914.

(NG 0304 9914) St Keith's Chapel (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

Although the RCAHMS states that nothing remains of St Keith's Chapel except a slight mound (21 x 12ft) oriented E-W, the stones having been removed, the Name Book (1878) says the foundations could be distinctly traced in 1878. The OS Reviser, in 1956, found the remains to comprise the foundation walls (6 x 4 metres) in the form of grass-covered banks, broken in parts and varying in height between ground level and 0.5 metre. A few loose stones were exposed on the N and E walls, but the feature was not obvious.
The Chapel was noticed by Martin in the 17th century (Teampull Che). RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914; Name Book 1878; M Martin 1934.

The greatly robbed remains of St Keith's. Chapel exist as vague turf-covered footings measuring about 6.3m E-W by about 4.5m transversely, with a maximum height of 0.3m It lies within the same disused burial ground as St Taran's Chapel (NG09NW 1).
Surveyed at 1/10,000 (See NG09NW 1)
Visited by OS (A A) 7 July 1969.

St Keith's Chapel (004)
The remains of St Keith's Chapel, located among a large spread of grave stones, were originally documented as above. A few loose stones are exposed on the northern and eastern walls, but the feature was not obvious. The chapel, which appeared as previously described, as very denuded walls, was found to overlie a midden deposit from which ceramics, bone and shell have been recovered in the past (D MacLeod pers. Comm).

The cemetery associated with St Keith's appears to have survived better… although the survey identified several cists which appeared to have eroded within the intertidal zone, with fragments of bone and cist slabs being identified on the beach. The cemetery, measuring roughly 40m north to south by 30m east to west, comprises at least 213 individual graves, which were marked by small plain stone slabs and boulders. The majoirty of the burials appeared to be aligned east to west, although a series of graves to the north of the cemetery were positioned north to south.

Neither the chapels nor the cemeteries were found to be enclosed.
Cook 2006, 4

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 49 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 31-2, No. 110 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Name Book (County), 1998, Name Books of the Ordnance Survey, Book No. 4, 231 (Unpublished document). SWE4254.

Martin Cook, AOC Archaeology, 2005, Excavations at St Taran's/St Keith's Chapels, Western Isles (Unpublished document). SWE41086.

2005, Taransay, Summer 2005 (Unpublished document). SWE41167.

Martin Cook, AOC Archaeology, 2006, St Taran's and St Keith's Chapels, Taransay, Western Isles (Article in serial). SWE41132.