EILEAN NAOMH, Argyleshire.
An extremely interesting example of the remains of an early monastic establishment on the Irish model is that on Eilean Naomh, one of the
Fig. 27. Fig. 28.
Eilean Naomh. Beehive Hut.
Garvelloch Islands, which lie about three miles west of Lunga, off the coast of Argyleshire. About the middle of the island, and on the south-east side, stand the ruins of several structures. “One of the largest and most entire is obviously a church internally 21 feet 7 inches in length, constructed, like all the other buildings, of rude masonry, in which no lime or cement of any kind has been used. Excepting the gables, which are wanting, the walls are perfect, but present nothing in the way of detail more important than a square-headed doorway of slightly tapering form in the west end, and a small square-headed window splayed on both sides, but mostly on the interior, in the east end, flanked on its south by a projecting shelf of slate, which seems to have been an altar.”[62] The enclosures of what were probably the garden and the burying-ground are visible south of the church.
Fig. 29.—Eilean Naomh.
Twin Beehive Huts.
Mr. Muir then describes “another building, an underground cell of irregular oval shape ([Fig. 27]), measuring 5 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 5 inches, with a depth of rather more than 4 feet. The roof is formed simply by a few heavy slabs laid across the walls on a level with the ground outside, and the entrance is by a slanting aperture ([Fig. 28]), just where the roof and the walls unite. Two other buildings ([Fig. 29]), forming a part of this curious group, remain to be described. These are dome-shaped and joined together; the larger one internally 14 feet in diameter, the other about a foot less. The two buildings communicate with each other by means of a square-shaped doorway through the point of contact, and the larger one with the outside by another doorway of the like kind facing the south-west; but with the exception of a square aperture at the ground, more like a gutter hole than a door, there is no external opening in the smaller building.”[63] The dome of the smaller structure is complete, but that of the larger is ruined. ([Fig. 30.])
The island of Naomh was often visited by Columba, and the establishment of which the above fragments are the remains is believed to have been that originally founded by St. Brendan, and afterwards refounded by Columba. Near the shore St. Columba’s well still survives.
One cannot fail to recognise in the above description a striking resemblance to the early monastic establishments of Ireland. We here find the same dry-built quadrilateral church, with door having sloping jambs, and the same beehive huts with domed roofs.[64]
Fig. 30.—Beehive Huts on Eilean Naomh. (From Scotland in Early Christian Times.)