Monument record 1428 - PABBAY,BARRA

NL68NW 2 6072 8745.

(NL 60728745) Chapel (NR) (Site of).
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Indistinct foundations of a chapel, of stone and lime, about 31' x 14', orientated WNW and ESE on a mound 10' high on the south-western border of the sandy slope running up from Bagh Ban on the eastern shore of Pabbay, about 150 yds. from the high water mark. A symbol stone, about 4' x 1'3" lies on the side of the mound, where there are also three cross slabs. Great quantities of human bones have been found.
RCAHMS 1928; J Anderson 1897.

Wedderspoon (J Wedderspoon 1915) describes the burial ground at Pabbay, within a few yards of the dwelling houses, as conical in shape, about 30 yards in circumference, within a ring of boulders, and about 15' high. It is covered with graves, but "the top is narrow, affording space for one grave only". He thought it the site of a prehistoric midden. Although these accounts are at variance Wedderspoon can hardly be referring to a different site.
J Wedderspoon 1915; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1901.

All that remains of the chapel on top of a grass-covered sand dune are vague traces of dry-stone walls and a scatter of stone slabs on the slopes of the dune. Near the summit of the mound and just on the SW slopes are 2 upright, incised cross-slabs, measuring (A) 0.3m x 0.3m x 1.3m high, and (B) 0.1m x 0.1m x 0.5m high. A further cross-slab (C) measuring 0.2m x 0.5m x 0.8m lies broken at the base of the dune close to the symbol stone, which is as described by RCAHMS. A shell midden is exposed in the lower E slopes of the dune. No human remains were seen at the time of investigation.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (N K B) 21 May 1965.


Class I symbol stone bearing a crescent and V-rod above a flower.A later cross is near the top.
A.Mack 1997.

PY55 (NL60748750) Burial ground.
Location: As above.
Description: Oval shape, c. 15 m diam., artificially heightened natural sand to form a steep sided burial mound. Like the burial mound on Berneray it appears to be capped with beach cobbles and several stone grave markers are still in place, one with a cross pecked on one face. The well-known Pabbay symbol stone lies at the base of the mound where it was dropped after being removed from its position on the mound. No doubt it proved too heavy to completely carry away. The Pictish symbols pecked on to its surface have become weathered and are only visible with the best of oblique lighting. The inscription consists of a 'moon' crescent and V-rod over the so-called flower, all of which clearly places it as a Class I inscribed stone that could date from around the 7th century AD (Allen and Anderson 1993). The stone has either been reused as a later grave marker or converted in true Christian fashion by incising a cross above the Pictish symbols.
There is little evidence, in the form of grave furniture, for example, to be seen on the site of the cemetery (PY55) to indicate that the mound had been used for burial rites during the modern period. How frequently the priest from Barra visited the island is not clear, but there was some connection with Craigston church at least for a while in the early 19th century through Lachlan MacNeil of Pabbay, who paid an annual fee for retaining a seat there (Allen and Anderson 1993) and the well-used cemetery on Mingulay would also have been within easy reach from Pabbay.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 87

This island measures 3km from E to W by 1.6km and rises at the SW to a summit of 171m. Most of its surface is composed of exposed gneiss and the shores are rocky, but at the NE there is a beach backed by sand-dunes, and areas of blown sand which afforded some cultivable soil and supported a small population. The only settlement was located about 180m from the head of the beach, and immediately to the NE there is a grass-covered sandy mound on whose summit a chapel was situated. The area between the settlement and the shore, and the E slope of the mound itself, have yielded extensive shell-midden material, and artefacts including an enamelled 'hand-pin' of early medieval type. The mound, which is up to 7m in height, appears to owe its form mainly to wind-erosion, although there are some remains of drystone revetments on its sides. The summit is not now large enough to preserve the chapel measuring about 9.5m by 4.3m whose 'indistinct foundations' were visible in 1915, although some scattered stones remain on the summit and the S and E slopes. Some of these stones appear to have been gravemarkers, and they include a symbol-stone (no.1) and another cross-marked stone (no.2), both near the foot of the S slope, while two other cross-marked stones stand near the S edge of the summit.
(1) Slab of local gneiss, uncovered by drifting sand some time before 1889. It is roughly rectangular, measuring 1.23m by 0.39m and 0.14m thick, but the top edges are damaged. The surface is worn and lichen-stained and the lower part, which evidently formed a butt for the stone to stand upright, is flaked. In the centre of the slab there is incised the 'flower' symbol, a tapering stem whose upper part splits into two branches, both curving to the right and ending in broad terminals. Above this there is a crescent-and-V-rod symbol of the 'dome-and-wing' type, ornamented with two small circles. The right terminal is effaced and the other is much worn, but appears to incorporate a circle. At the top of the slab, rising from the upper curve of the crescent just right of its apex, there is an incised Latin cross, 0.21m in height and span. Its side-arms have barred terminals, but the top arm, which appears to be complete despite damage to the edge of the slab, is plain. The cross is more deeply incised than the symbols, and its position appears to be chosen to make the best use of available space, suggesting that it was an addition to the slab. (E Beveridge 1922, 2, pl.303; J Anderson 1897, 299-300; Allen and Anderson 1903, 3, 111-13; RCAHMS 1928, No.438; R B K Stevenson 1955, C11; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 27-8; A Mack 1997, 135).
(2) Slightly tapered pillar of gneiss, much worn and lichen-stained, broken across about 0.15m below the top and lacking the upper left edge. It measures 0.79m by 0.15m to 0.19m, and is 90mm thick. It bears a sunken cross with expanded terminals, 0.19m high and having a 100mm transom at about mid-height.
(RCAHMS 1928, No.438; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31).
(3) Irregular earthfast pillar of gneiss, 1.32m in visible height by 0.33m by 0.3m. On the W face there is a cross with barred terminals, 0.19m high and 0.15m across the transom, which is at mid-height. It is executed with a shallow sunken groove of U-section and is set in an incised cruciform frame, 0.29m high and 0.21m across the arms. The top arm of this outer cross has a constriction which gives it the form of a cross-potent.
(RCAHMS 1928, No.438 and fig.175; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31).
(4) Earthfast pillar of gneiss, 0.49m in visible height by 1.35m square at base and tapering to 0.1m on the E and W faces and 0.12m on the sides. On the E face (a) there is a sunken Latin cross, 0.31m high and 95mm across the arms, executed with a U-section groove about 25mm wide. On the W face (b) there is a similar cross, 0.36m high, whose top and side-arms extend to the edges of the pillar.
Footnotes:
(i) For the settlement history of the island see Buxton, op.cit., 150-7; M A Edwards 1981; Branigan and Foster 2000, 81-92, 234-77.
(ii) J Wedderspoon 1915, 325-7. For the hand-pin (now in the Museum of Scotland), see PSAS, 35 (1900-1), 278-9.
(iii) RCAHMS 1928, No.438; photograph, 1895, in E Beveridge 1922, 2, pl.302.
RCAHMS 1928, No.438; M A Edwards 1981, 16, 29-31.
I Fisher 2001, 106.

J Anderson, 1896-7, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 299-300 fig. 4 (Bibliographic reference). SWE762.

J Wedderspoon, 1906-12b, Trans Inverness Sci Soc Fld Club, 325-7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7658.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 126, No. 438 fig. 180 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

A Mack, 1997, Field Guide to the Pictish Symbol Stones, 135 (Bibliographic reference). SWE37310.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.