2002.69.10

St Columba’s Church, Kirkapol

Photograph of the Old Parish Church at Kirkapol in 2001.

t65.jpg

Courtesy of Rev. Robert Higham

The Old Parish Church, dedicated to St Columba, stands within its own graveyard, An Cladh Beag, a quarter of a kilometre from Gott Bay. It is oblong in plan and measures 11.3 by 5.2 metres within walls over a metre thick.

There is a blocked-up round-arch entrance in the west wall and two round-arch windows in the south wall. During conservation work on the church in 2001, the disarticulated remains of at least ten bodies were found in the area of ground beneath the large breach in the east gable wall.

Beneath these bones, the remains of two more bodies were found in a small burial chamber, which was probably part of the original church construction in the late 14th century. These discoveries accord with the medieval practice of burying bodies beneath the walls of consecrated buildings.

Colour photograph of one of the Kirkapol chapels.

The larger of the two Kirkapol chapels, St Columba`s, photographed in 2001.

Object Details

Other Number: T65
Normal Location: Photograph Shelves: photographs – T1-99
Current Location: normal location

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