Monument record 372 - ST. LENNANS CHURCH, NORTH BEACH, LEWIS

NB43SW 8 4223 3280.

A church dedicated to St. Lennan is listed by Martin (M Martin 1934) as existing in addition to Stornoway Church (NB43SW 2). St Lennans was built, according to Mackenzie (W C Mackenzie 1919); by the first Earl
of Seaforth who died in 1633, - the pre-reformation church having probably fallen into disrepair. The site was on the North Beach, where no trace remains, but stones from the church were re-used in the construction of houses on the same site. A door believed to belong to this church is in use in a cobbler's shop.
M Martin 1934; W C Mackenzie 1919; Burke and Burke 1896.

A plaque referring to this church is located inside the Sailor's Home at NB 4223 3280.
Visited by OS (W Y R) 1 May 1964.

Skeletal material from the cemetery of this church was exhumed during the excavation of the cellars of the Crown Hotel, adjacent to the west, in the early 1960s, and dumped at the Gearraidh na h-Aibhe bridge and in Point. The contractor on the job was Norman MacKenzie. (information from Jim Crawford, 12 Gearraidh na h-Aibhne). MML 3.3.99


'It is said that the first parish church in Stornoway,St Lennan,stood half way between low tide and high tide.This also helps to locate the Cromwellian fort ,since it assimilated the chucrh within its fortification.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,25).

'The church dedicated to St Lennan is thought to have been built in the seventeenth century.Nothing is visible today,and the site ,which lays on North Beach Q,has since been developed as a street frontage.Traces of the church may be preserved either below the present day ground levelor,alternatively,may have been incorporated in later buildings on the site.An associated graveyard would also be expected in this area.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,47).

Keyhole excavations for the Point Street fountain did not hit the cemetery, but work on the carpark of the Hebridean Inn did. MML 14.11.2000

NB 422 327 Human remains were found while digging a wall trench at the rear of the former Fishermen's Mission building, North Beach Street, during conversion works. Disturbed bones from several individuals, clay pipe fragments and an iron nail with wood traces were recovered from waterlogged shingle levels. A section of lime-mortared stone wall from an earlier building at a slightly different alignment to the present street and frontages was also observed. This part of the town was occupied by St Lennan's Church and graveyard in the 17th century.
Sponsor: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Knott, C M 2000, 101

Desk-top assessment
Barrowman 2005, 60-61

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 27-8 (2nd ed., 1716) (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

Burke and Burke, 1896, Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom (Bibliographic reference). SWE14583.

W C Mackenzie, 1919, The Book of the Lews: the story of a Hebridean Isle, 146-7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12815.

E. Patricia Dennison & Russel Coleman, 1997, Historic Stornoway: the archaeological implications of development (Bibliographic reference). SWE41004.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2000, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41184.

Ms Carol Knott, 2000, Excavations at the Fishermen's Mission, Stornoway (Excavation archive). SWE41017.

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