Monument record 376 - ST AULA'S CHURCH, GRESS, LEWIS

NB44SE 3 4902 4154.

(NB 4902 4154) Gress Church (NR) (In Ruins)
OS 6'map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1898)

Church of 'St Aula in Grease' listed.
M Martin 1934.

St Aula's Church briefly described.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7.

A simple church, 19ft by 13ft 11 ins internally, orientated south of east, with walls and gable still standing in 1914. Above the door is the date 1681 with the initials IB/MK
RCAHMS 1928.

The remains are as described by RCAHMS (1928) and the inscription over the door, though much weathered is still decipherable. The door is on the S Wall with a window to the W of it. The only other window is in the W Wall. There are three graves inside the church. Modern lean-to structures have been added to the exterior of the E and N walls to house biers and other equipment related to the surrounding burial ground, which is still in use.
Visited by OS (ALFR) assistant archaeology officer, 20 April 1964.

No mention is made of the slight earthwork enclosure around the churchyard or of two early stones standing between the church and the road. One is roughly shaped into a cross and compares in size and form with that shown on pl. IIIa in Lamont, W.D. Ancient and Mediaeval Sculptured Stones of Islay. The other is fragmentary and consists of one arm of a cross which had an open circle instead of a boss. E. Talbot DES 1973 p 48

'The monument...comprises of the ruins of a small pre-Reformation Church situated within a graveyard in use. The area to be scheduled is rectangular and measures a maximum of 25m WNW-ESE by 10m NNE-SSW to include the church and buried archaeological features which may relate to earlier activity.'
HS Scheduling Document 24 February 1992.

Desk-top assessment, but no walkover survey
Barrowman 2005, 69-70

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

D & T MacGibbon & Ross, 1896, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian Times to the17th Century, Vol. 1, 83 (Bibliographic reference). SWE4321.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 14, No. 45 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

E Talbot, 1973b, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 48 (Bibliographic reference). SWE14056.

Rachel Barrowman, 2005, Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey 2004/5 (Unpublished document).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