Monument record 774 - TEAMPULL CHALUIM CHILLE, BALIVANICH, BENBECULA

NF75SE 2 7822 5490

For Tobar Chaluim Chille (NF 7820 5475), see NF75SE 3.

(NF 7822 5490) Teampull Chaluim Chille (NR) (Ruins of).
OS 6' map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The ruin of Teampull Chaluim Chille stands on a slight eminence in a marsh 1/4 mile south-east of Balivanich, Benbecula. The church is oblong in plan, and, by a later extension, two-chambered. It is 47 1/2ft by 14 1/2ft internally with gables 3 1/2ft thick. By 1924, the eastern gable was reduced to foundation level, the western to the height of the lintel, and the lateral walls to an average of 8ft.
On a knoll west of the teampull are some indeterminate foundations. RCAHMS 1928.

Church of St. Columba. The older part may have been built under the direction of St. Columba (c AD. 521-97) it is certainly older than the end of the 8th century. The east end probably dates to the end of the 14th century.
F W L Thomas and T S Muir 1873.

The foundations to the west were, in 1855, about 30ft long, and 'may have been a chapel'.
T S Muir 1885.

The church is as described by RCAHMS. Three buildings can be traced to the N, W and SW of the church. They consist of grass-covered rubble foundations, c.1.7m wide and 0.4m high in the best preserved example.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (J T T) 27 May 1965.

The monument comprises a ruined church and nearby well.
The ruins of the church stand on a slight eminence in a marsh 400m SE of Balivanich. The church was rectangular in plan, measuring some 7m wide and at least 11m in length, with walls between 0.35m and 0.43m thick, built in rubble masonry. A narrow lintelled door (0.64m wide) survives in the W wall, a splayed window in the N. wall and two in the S. wall. However, in a secondary phase the chancel had apparently been extended eastward, giving the churhc and overall length of some 16.6m. The walls of the new chancel are similar to those of the nave, but only 0.66m - 0-.7m thick. The E gable and returns of the N and S. walls have broken away and collapsed downhill, the break apparently being on the line of the splayed windows in the N. and S. walls that lit the altar. Remains of opther buildings, represented by grass-covered rubble ruins, survive immediately N., W., and SW of the church.
The monument to be scheduled comprises...a circular area of ground, 100m in diameter, centred on the centre point of the church...
The monument is of national importance as representing a medieval church of some size, and thus presumabley of some importance, which, as the standing remains demonstrate, underwent more than one phase of building. Although its dedication is to St Columba and its island location possibly suggestive of an early monastic site, there is nothing in the visible archaeology to suggest any activity earlier than the fourteenth century. The below-ground archaeological remains, however, some of which may be preserved in waterlogged condition, have the potential to shed further light on this and other questions pertaining to the history and use of the church. The importance of the churhc and its associated well as a place of pilgrimage is indicated by the cairn of stones surviving at the latter.

Statement of National Importance (Proposal to Schedule an Ancient Monument) HS

This was surrounded by an expanse of bog, which made it difficult to reach safely (it may well be that the area has become more waterlogged since it was last surveyed in 1965, perhaps due to a rise in the level of Loch na Cille to the east of the site).
Fyles 2006,3

F W L and T S Thomas and Muir, 1873, Archaeol Scot, 239-42 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7759.

T S Muir, 1885, Ecclesiological notes on some of the Islands of Scotland, 278 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5959.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 99, No. 399 plan (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Chris Fyles, SUAT Ltd, 2006, Archaeological Walkover Survey, AIRD, Benbecula (Unpublished document). SWE41084.