Building record 456 - TEAMPULL, MHOLUAIDH, EUROPIE, LEWIS

NB56NW 3 5192 6515

(NB 519 652) Teampull Mholuidh (OE) (In Ruins)
OS 6-inch map, (1898)

The 'Church of St Mulvay' was associated with hallow-tide sacrifices to the sea-god Shony, which ceased only 32 years before Martin's visit.
M Martin 1716

'Teampull Moluach' is briefly described, with plan before restoration.
D MacGibbon and Ross 1896

The 'Teampull Mor at Europie', variously called St Molua's, St Malvay's, St Olaf's and St Mallonvy's, had various pagan rites associated with it. The original building, which may date from the 14th century (RCAHMS 1928), was completely restored about 1902 and religious services have been held there from time to time, the last in 1955 (Information from OS (WS) 8 September 1956).
W C MacKenzie 1919

Teampull Mholuidh, at NB 5192 6515, is as described and planned by the Commission.
Visited by OS (RL) 16 June 1969

Church name-board states: "Church of St Moluag;
The Teampull Mhor"
OS Revision July 1973

A detailed description of the (then) recently restored church is given in the RCAHMS inventory.
RCAHMS 1928

Described in the Statistical Account 1791-99 as ' 50 feet long, 24 broad and 16 feet in the side walls' (Rev Donald MacDonald). MacKenzie in 1792 writes of the 'superstitious veneration … still paid to it', and MacGibbon and Ross 1896 describe it prior to restoration, in a description taken from Muir. The RCAHMS described it comprehensively in 1921. There were excavations around the chapel in 1977 by John Barber of the Central Excavation Unit, and there are photographs of the excavations, and of the pre-restoration buildling in the 19th C. in Comunn Eachdraidh Nis. No further field work carried out in the Lewis Coastal Chapel Sites Survey 2004-5
Barrowman 2005, 10-13

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 28-9 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

D & T MacGibbon & Ross, 1896, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian Times to the17th Century, Vol.1, 99 fig.66 (Bibliographic reference). SWE4321.

H A Meaden, 1918-21, Trans Scot Eccles Soc, 170-3 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5524.

W C Mackenzie, 1919, The Book of the Lews: the story of a Hebridean Isle, 140-4 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12815.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 2-3, No.8 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

W D Simpson, 1961b, The Castle of Bergen and the Bishop's Palace at Kirkwall, 7 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7207.

J W A Barber, 1978-80a, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 530-3 (Bibliographic reference). SWE397.

J Barber, 1978b, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 34 (Bibliographic reference). SWE14629.

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

Claire Shaw, Jacobs, 2007, Eoropie Waste Water Treatment Works, Outfall, Access road and Replacement Sewer (Unpublished document). SWE41155.