Monument record 549 - ST BRENDAN'S CHAPEL, BRUACH BEARNASDALE , BARRA

NF60SW 1 6477 0168.

(NF 6477 0168) St Brendan's Chapel (NR) (Ruins of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

The remains of this chapel (called St Brendan's, probably after the OS) are described by the RCAHMS as oriented slightly north of east and south of west, and comprising only part of a gable of stone and lime, about 3ft high.
What must be the same chapel is described in Orig Paroch Scot (1854) as the Church of St Michael, one of the three places of worship in the parish of Barra (the other two being NF70NW 3 and NL69NE 4), and by Muir as St Michael's Chapel at Borve, 'the only other ecclesiastical building I know in the mainland of Barra' (besides St Barr's Chapel - NF70NW 3); he goes on to say that only the ground plan was left, showing a chancel and nave 'constructively separated' and respectively 7 ft 10 ins and 23 ft long, and suggests a late 12th century date. Both Orig Paroch Scot (1854) and Muir (T S Muir 1885) cite OSA (OSA 1794) and probably derive the St Michael dedication from it; though this is supported by Martin's note that the festival of St Michael was celebrated on the island of Barra (M Martin 1884).
The OS dedication to St Brendan was authorised by a Mr McKinnon of Borve and Mr McMillan, a shepherd; the description is simply 'ruin of an ancient chapel'.
RCAHMS 1928; Orig Paroch Scot 1854; T S Muir 1885; M Martin 1884; Name Book; OSA 1794.

The remains of this chapel consist of a chancel and nave, measuring overall 12.4m E-W by 4.2m, outlined by a slight turf-covered stony bank. The wall dividing the chancel and nave, free of turf, is 1.0m wide and 0.7m high.
The dedication of the chapel was not resolved during field investigation.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (W D J) 17 May 1965.

Scheduled Ancient Monument 5527
St Michael's Chapel,chapel,Port na Cille,Barra
The monument consists of the remains of a medieval chapel.

The chapel, which according to different sources is dedicated to St Michael
or to St Brendan, survives as the turf-covered foundations of the walls. It
has an unusual plan, being one of only two examples in the Western Isles
with nave and chancel separated by a wall pierced
by a narrow doorway. This dividing wall is not turf-covered. The nave is
some 7m long internally, the chancel 2.5m. The walls are up to 1m thick and
of lime-mortared rubble construction.

The area to be scheduled consists of the chapel itself and an area 2m wide
around it, being a rectangle 14.5m E-W by 6.5m N-S, as indicated in red on
the accompanying map.
Historic Scotland Scheduling document 1993

Note: to N of chapel is a long, low, earthfast slab, oriented E-W, with two
simple crosses incised on its flat, S face. It is difficult to assign a
date to this, but could perhaps be early, if not a reused stone (?altar
slab) from the chapel. Rabbit burrowing has unearthed midden in the SW
corner of the modern graveyard, i.e. from the broch mound: grass-tempered
pottery, fish and animal bone.
SMF 2000

B163 (NF647017) Fragments of walling and a pile of stone debris, from St Brendan's chapel, standing in the corner of the modern cemetery on Borve headland and on top of site B5 (RCAHMS 1928: 125, No. 437).

Brannigan and Foster 2000, 33

Chapel comprises almost entirely of turf covered walls with small areas of lime bonded rubble visible in the chancel. As noted above, a pile of loose stone is located between the two divisions of the structure; one of the stones is a broken and unfinished rotory quern with incomplete perforations on either side. The earthfast slab noted by SMF is orientated N/S and the double crosses, face east. The crosses have been incised in to thin cement fillets and are likely to date circa 20th century. Slightly to the Nw is a notible headstone. Its of a different type of stone and has an inscribed cross and script on it, it appears post medieval; however it may have been reused from an earlier memorial.
K.Murphy (Arch Service CnES) 04/09/2024

OSA, The Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. 13, 335 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5882.

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

OPS, 1854, Origines Parochiales Scotiae, 363 (Bibliographic reference). SWE9142.

T S Muir, 1885, Ecclesiological notes on some of the Islands of Scotland, 53, 283 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5959.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 125-6, No. 437 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Name Book (County), 1998, Name Books of the Ordnance Survey, Book No. 1, 23 (Unpublished document). SWE4254.

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