Monument record 143 - ST PETER'S CHURCH, PABAY MHOR

NB13NW 1 1042 3769.

(NB 1042 3769 ) Church (NR)
OS 6"map, (1965)

The slight remains of a small church, built of stone and lime, rectangular on plan,and orientated almost ENE-WSW.
It measures abaout 20'9" by 13' internally with walls about 2'10" thick. The building is much dilapidated and only one window is traceable, towards the west end of the south wall. The best preserved part of the wall shows a height of 2'6" but the doorway is quite obliterated.
Martin mentions the church of St Peter in Pabbay Island which is presumably a reference to this site.
RCAHMS 1928; M Martin 1934.

A church, locally known as St Peter's Church, generally as described by RCAHMS. It is oriented NE-SW, with the window at the E end of the S wall.
There are traces of a chancel, denoted by a mutilated turf-covered wall showing little of its stonework. There is a local tradition of a burial ground, but there is no sign of it.
Visited by OS (A A) 8 July 1969.

NB 1042 3769 St Peter's church. There have been 'excavations' along some of the inside walls of the church, revealing a lot more of the structural detail than is given in the NMR. This has happened since the last time any of our party was there 2-3 years ago.
Carol Knott 7.8.2000

A few plain marker stones are visible in the turf of the surrounding mounded slope. The presence of a cemetery is therefore almost certain. The underlying mound also indicates that, as one would expect, the church is probably founded upon an earlier settlement site.
MML 2001

The monument known as St Peter's Church, Pabay Mor, Lewis, comprises the remains of a small church dedicated to St Peter on Pabay Mor. The surviving fabric is medieval in date but the Pabay place-name would suggest that there has been an early medieval church somewhere on the island. The area to be scheduled is a circle 40m in diameter, centred on the church, to include the church, graveyard and at least part of the settlement mound and an area around in which evidence for their construction and use may survive.
HS scheduling document, 2.2.2004

Desk-top assessment, but no walk-over survey
Barrowman 2005, 44-45

Due to recent interference to the fabric of the Teamapll Pheadair, there are distinct remains of the tops of two lancet windows in the west gable which would indicate that this building has suffered inundation by sand, and also that the roof was formerly corbelled, as there is a distinct roof springing of the walls, which is not due to settlement
Crawford 2008, 4

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 106 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 18, No. 64 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

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

James Crawford, 2008, Loch Roag Island Survey and other notes (Unpublished document). SWE41192.