Monument record 9828 - Ranish burial ground and chapel

Burial ground and chapel, Ranish (NB399248).

What we could see was an old burial ground enclosed by a drystone wall, rectangular in shape. The enclosed area measures some 15 m N-S by 22 m E-W. In the W half of the burial ground are the remains of two small structures: drystone mausoleum (family burial enclosure) approximately 6 x 3.5 m, now ruinous but with walls almost a metre high in places, and the foundations of another building to the south of it. This scond building was originally a little larger than the mausoleum, around 4.5 N-S x 7.4 m E-W. The walls stand to around 0.7 m but are covered in turf, and the interior of the building is also obscured by tumbled stone and turf.

There is a particularly large concentration of tumbled stone at the east end; if the building is to be interpreted as a former chapel - which seems reasonable - the east end would have housed the altar. It is impossible to make out any architectural details of the building, which was probably disused by the time the mausoleum was built; it looks as though tht esouth wall of the mausoleum may have been built over the north wall of the chapel, and perhaps was constructed in part out of the stone from the earlier building.

Hothersall, Sue 1996, 5

Desk-top assessment, but no site visit
Barrowmn 2005, 59-60

The drystone enclosure is a later addition and appears to have two -phases of construction. The earlier site extends beyond the current stone boundary on the western side and comprises of a raised grassey area with occasional stones, oval in shape bounded by a ditch. The eastern end of the site incorparates outcropping rock with thinner soils. The burial ground enclosure and chapel are depicted on the Chapman / Gibbs, 'Plan of the Isle of Lewis' (1817), this map was compiled from a survey carried out in between 1807-9. It shows an isolated irregular oval shaped enclosure with a building located centrally within it. Interesting to note that the chapel and enclosure sit astride some form of land division boundary; settlements are located further away to the south and east. The site is heavy overgrown with grass.
K.Murphy (Arch Service) 04/11/2024

Hothersall, Sue, 'The Burial Ground and Chapel at Ranish', Dusgadh North Lochs Historical Society Newsletter (Article in serial). SWE41038.

Chapman, James / Gibbs, Alexander, 1807-09, Plan of [the] Island of Lewis (Cartographic materials). SWE41337.

Rachel Barrowman, 2005, Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey 2004/5 (Unpublished document). SWE41095.