CAVE-CHAPELS.
In the biographies of the saints of the early Celtic Church it is frequently recorded that towards the close of their lives they left their monasteries and sought the seclusion of some lonely island or mountain solitude, in order to pass the evening of their days in undisturbed devotion and freedom from worldly cares. Joceline in his Life of St Kentigern also records that it was his custom to retire to a cave during Lent, so that, ‘removed from the strife of tongues and the tumults of this world, he might hide himself in God.’ Such retreats, whether they were used for periodical and temporary seclusion or for permanent retirement, were called in the ecclesiastical language of the day Deserta; and the frequent occurrence of this term in the topography of Scotland and Ireland—in its modern form of Dysart or Disert—shows how common the custom must once have been. Sometimes the recluse erected a habitation for himself of stones and turf, as St Cuthbert did in the island of Farne; but frequently he chose the shelter of a natural cavern or crevice in the rocks, as St Cuthbert is also said to have done at Weem in Perthshire. As the veneration for the memory of the saint increased with lapse of time, the sites of such hermitages naturally became places of pilgrimage, and troops of devotees were drawn to visit them by rumours of special benefits accruing to pilgrims of weak health, or peace of mind procured by the performance of special vows. In consequence of the peculiar prevalence of this mode of retirement in the primitive Celtic Church, cave-hermitages must have been exceedingly numerous in Scotland. But the thoroughness of the breach which the Church of the Reformation made with the traditions and especially with the superstitious practices of the past, has obliterated most of the traces of this early devotion; and it is only in a few isolated and exceptional cases that any of its associations have survived to our day.
St Ninian’s Cave, near Physgill, in the parish of Glasserton, Wigtownshire, is situated a little to the west of the wooded valley which terminates in the creek known as Portcastle. It is simply a triangular fissure in the rock, some ten or twelve feet wide at the entrance, and about fifteen feet in height, narrowing inwards until, at a distance of about twenty-five feet from the entrance, the sides of the fissure come gradually together. A rudely-built wall has been constructed across the mouth of the cave, of which the lower part still remains. On the occasion of a visit to the cave by the late Dean Stanley of Westminster, a small cross was discovered carved on a projecting part of the rock, and three others were subsequently made visible by the partial removal of the debris from the face of the rock. The form of these crosses is peculiar. They are equal-limbed crosses, formed by four arcs of circles intersecting the circumference of a circumscribing circle. Similar equal-limbed crosses, but bearing the hook-like curve at the right-hand corner of the upper limb, which constitutes the chrisma or monogram—the combined Chi and rho of the Greek word Christos—are found upon early Christian monuments at Kirkmadrine and Whithorn in the same county, but nowhere else in Scotland. These monuments bear inscriptions commemorative of certain ‘holy and distinguished priests’—Viventius, Mavorius, and Florentius. Their names are so different from those of the priesthood of the Columban Church, that they may be regarded as followers if not as contemporaries of St Ninian. But none of the crosses in Ninian’s Cave present this peculiarly ancient characteristic of the chrisma, and these crosses may therefore be of a much later date than Ninian’s time. They are not confined to the rock-face, but have also been carved upon several of the loose stones found on the floor of the cave.
In the month of June last the cave was thoroughly explored for the Ayrshire and Wigtownshire Archæological Association, under the superintendence of Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., and Mr Cochran-Patrick, M.P., Secretary of the Association and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. They found that the whole floor of the cave had been regularly paved; and close to the entrance, but outside the external wall which converted the cave into a chapel, there was a large stone basin placed under a natural drip from the rock, which may have served as a holy-water vessel. A number of additional crosses were also discovered. On a stone which had been placed as one of the steps leading down to the paved floor there were four crosses in a line. On one of the stones of the pavement was an inscription in Roman letters, of which the word Sancti could only be deciphered. Underneath the pavement and throughout the debris of the cave-floor there was a considerable accumulation of shells, consisting chiefly of limpets and periwinkles, mingled with splintered bones, evidently the refuse of the food of some earlier occupants. At a considerable depth immediately outside the wall of the chapel, the decayed remnants of a human skeleton were disentombed. Whether these were the bones of a hermit of the chapel who had chosen to be buried in the spot where he had ended his solitary life, or the remains of some victim of violence placed there for concealment, will probably remain unknown.
St Ninian, to whom the cave was dedicated, was the first who preached Christianity among the southern Picts. His life and labours are briefly related by the Venerable Bede, and more fully by Ailred, a Cistercian monk of Rievaux, in Yorkshire. Ailred, whose Life of St Ninian was written in the second half of the twelfth century, states that he derived his materials from a certain barbarously written manuscript, presumably of much earlier date. He informs us that Ninian was born at Whithorn—then called Rosnat—and that he was the son of a Christian Prince. Having received his education under the care of St Martin of Tours, he subsequently went to Rome, where he remained till he was made a bishop and sent to evangelise the people of his native province. From St Martin he obtained masons to build a stone church in Galloway after the Roman fashion. As this was the first stone church erected in Scotland, the fame of Ninian’s Candida Casa or White House has been perpetuated in the Saxon form of Whitherne or Whithorn. The date of its erection is fixed by the fact that St Martin died in 397 A.D.; and St Ninian, having heard of his death while the church was being built, resolved to dedicate the finished edifice to his memory. Ninian himself, after a life full of labours, was buried in the church of St Martin which he had built; and Ailred mentions the stone sarcophagus which contained his remains as still existing in his day, and much venerated in consequence of the many miraculous cures said to be wrought upon those who devoutly frequented it. Pilgrimages continued to be made to the shrine of St Ninian down to the period of the Reformation. In a letter of King James V. of Scotland to the Pope, the king states that pilgrims from England, Ireland, the Isles, and adjoining countries came yearly in flocks to St Ninian’s shrine at Whithorn. That notable pilgrim King James IV. made special pilgrimages to this famous shrine, and his Treasurer has preserved an account of his disbursements on these occasions. From it we learn that the king made offerings in money ‘at the Rude Altar; at the fertir (or shrine) in the outer kirk; at the reliques at the Hie Altair; at the Lady Altar; and in the chapel on the hill—at ilk place xiiis. 4d.’ And in 1505 he offered also ‘ane relique of the king’s awn silver’ of considerable weight and value.
The number of dedications to St Ninian, scattered over the whole country from the remotest Northern and Western Isles to the Mull of Galloway, bear testimony to the widespread devotion to his memory which once pervaded the Scottish Church. The removal of a portion of the wall of the choir of the old church of St Congan at Turriff in 1861 brought to light a fresco-painting of St Ninian, robed as a bishop, with mitre and pastoral staff—the only relic of pre-Reformation work of the kind that has been discovered in Scotland. Neither in his Life nor in any ancient document has any reference been found to the occupation of the cave at Physgill by St Ninian; but Sulpicius Severus, who wrote a Life of St Martin of Tours, mentions that he had a little cell in the rock at Marmoutier to which he was accustomed to retire for prayer and meditation, and that many of his disciples also dug cells in the rock and took up their abodes in them. St Ninian being a disciple of St Martin, there is reason to conclude that in this respect he would follow the example of his master. But apart from this consideration, it is certain that from a very early period this cave has been traditionally associated with his name, and that this association was the reason for converting it into a chapel, where services would be held on the saint’s anniversaries, pilgrimages performed, vows paid, and offerings presented. It is not unlikely that in its earlier days the chapel may have been ministered to by a resident recluse, as was often the custom in similar circumstances. For instance, we are told by Bower, the continuator of Fordun’s Chronicle, that in crossing the Firth of Forth in the year 1123, King Alexander I. was driven by stress of weather to land on the island of Inchcolm, ‘where at that time lived an island hermit, who, belonging to the service of St Columba, devoted himself sedulously to his duties at a little chapel there, content with such poor food as the milk of one cow, and the shells and small sea-fishes he could collect.’ It is suggestive, too, that one of the copies of the Scotichronicon—that which belonged to the Abbey of Coupar-Angus—connects the island of Inchcolm with St Columba by saying that he lived in it for a certain time during his ministry among the Picts and Scots, just as the cave at Physgill is connected with St Ninian.
There is another cave-chapel on the Wigtownshire coast, which had a reputation scarcely less famous than that of St Ninian. St Medan’s Cave, still locally known as ‘The Chapel Co’,’ is an irregular rent in the cliff between Maryport and East Tarbert, about four miles from Drumore. In front of it are the remains of a wall about four feet thick, of rough stones and lime, still showing traces of the doorway, and one deeply splayed window. About twelve feet farther in is the back wall of the chapel, reaching to the roof of the cave, but giving access, by a square-headed doorway four feet high and two and a half feet wide, to the small natural cell in which the cave terminates. Near the external entrance there are three pools or rock basins, within the tide-mark, and usually full of sea-water. The largest, which is about four feet in diameter, is known as ‘the Body Pool,’ and was used for the cure of internal and wasting disorders, being specially efficacious in cases of ‘back-gane bairns’. The second pool, of an irregularly triangular shape, and about two feet long, was known as ‘the Knee Pool,’ and was considered effectual for the cure of diseases of the lower limbs. The third pool, a circular basin about six inches diameter and the same in depth, was used for sore eyes. The cave and its pools were largely frequented for curative purposes down almost to the commencement of the present century, and continued to be occasionally visited to a much later period. There are persons yet living who remember large gatherings at St Medan’s Chapel, especially on the first Sunday of May, old style. St Medan, who is commemorated in the dedication of the church of Kirkmaiden, was one of the ‘devout women’ of the early Celtic Church of whom there is no distinct biographic record. The Breviary of Aberdeen states that she came from Ireland to Galloway, and ended her days near the blessed St Ninian. Mr Skene identifies her with Modwena, whose original name was Darerca, a convert of St Patrick, who died on St Columba’s birthday, July 6, 519 A.D.
St Kieran’s Cave is situated in the precipitous cliffs of Achinhoan Head, about three miles south of the site of the church dedicated to him at Kilkerran, in Kintyre, Argyllshire. It is one of many fissures occurring in the limestone rock on this coast, irregularly triangular in shape, spacious and lofty. A substantially built wall three feet thick has been constructed across the entrance. Immediately within the entrance is a rough boulder with an oval basin scooped in its upper surface, which is placed beneath a drip of water from the roof of the cave, and thus forms a reservoir, which may have answered the purposes of a hermit’s well, a holy-water vessel for the pilgrims’ chapel, and a curative or holy well for the superstitious uses of later times. Close by it is another boulder about two feet in diameter, the upper surface of which is prettily carved with a circular border of fretwork, such as is frequently seen on the early sculptured monuments of Scotland and Ireland, inclosing a hexafoil with its points connected by arcs of circles. A writer in the old Statistical Account of Scotland also speaks of the cross which St Kieran had cut upon the rock; but this is no longer visible. Kieran Macantsaor, or the ‘carpenter’s son,’ was Abbot of Clonmacnois. In his youth he was a disciple of St Finan of Clonard; and in proof of the sanctity of his life, it is told of him that ‘he never looked upon a woman, and never told a lie.’ He was held in great esteem by St Columba, who is said to have written a hymn in praise of Kieran. He died at the age of thirty-three, and ‘was likened to Christ, both on account of his age and that his father was a carpenter like Joseph Muire.’
A cave on the western shore of Loch Caolisport, also in Argyllshire, is associated with the name of the great evangelist of Scotland, St Columba. Like most other cave-chapels, it has the remains of a wall, with a doorway, constructed across the entrance. On a kind of rocky shelf close by the doorway is a rude circular basin, which probably served as the holy-water vessel of the chapel. Against the rock forming the east side of the cave is the altar platform, roughly but solidly built, and still standing—or at least till quite recently—to nearly its full height. On the smooth face of the rock above the centre of the altar platform is a cross carved in relief, of the Latin form, but with its arms and summit slightly expanding towards the extremities. This cross is placed a little to one side of the centre; but more nearly in a central position over the altar there are discernible the almost obliterated outlines of a much older cross which has been incised in the rock. At a little distance from the cave are the ruins of an ancient chapel dedicated to St Columba. It is a small plain edifice about forty feet by twenty-two, with one east window, and the remains of a window in each of the side-walls near the eastern end. The tradition is that St Columba, landing here on his way to Iona, established the chapel in the cave, which was ever afterwards held sacred to his memory, and that the chapel near it was subsequently founded in his honour. The cave was cleared out about two years ago by the proprietor; but no record of what might have been a most interesting scientific investigation appears to have been preserved. It is said that a great many burials were found in the floor of the cave—as many as sixteen or eighteen different skeletons are supposed to have been found—and underneath them the traces of a more ancient occupation of the cavern, probably in pagan times.
The cave of St Molio in the Island of Lamlash, or Holy Island, on the east side of Arran, is a natural cavity in the sandstone rock, about twenty-five feet above the present tide-mark. Traces of a rudely-built wall across its entrance are still visible. A shelf of rock within the cave is known as ‘the Saint’s Bed;’ a large flat-topped rock close by with several step-like recesses cut in its circumference is called ‘the Saint’s Chair;’ and a fine spring of pure water, which is known as ‘the Saint’s Well,’ was formerly much resorted to for the healing virtues of its water. The Island of Lamlash appears in ancient documents as Helant-in-laysche or Almeslach, and this form of the name identifies it with St Molaissi or Laisren of Leighlin, a nephew of St Blane of Kingarth in Bute. His mother was a daughter of Aedhan, king of the Scots of Dalriada; and it is told of him, that in order to avoid being made king, he retired to an island in the sea between Alban and Britain—between the country of the Scots and that of the Britons of Strathclyde. This answers precisely to the situation of the Holy Island which is still associated with his name. There was a relic either of St Molaissi or of St Moluag of Lismore preserved in Arran down to the time of Martin’s visit to the island in the beginning of the last century. This was the Baul Muluy, a ‘green stone, like a globe in figure, about the bigness of a goose-egg,’ which was much used by the islanders for curing diseases and ‘for swearing decisive oaths upon it.’ It seems to have been in the hereditary custody of a family of Mackintoshes, and had also the reputation of having been anciently a vexillum or battle-ensign of the Macdonalds of the Isles, carried with their host in their conflicts, in the belief that its presence would secure to them victory over their enemies. The cave of St Molio has several Runic inscriptions cut upon its interior—mere graffiti of occasional visitors at the time when the galleys of the Northmen frequented the western seas. Amudar, Ontur, and Sea-elk, who have left their names there, may have been pagans; but Nicolas of Haen, who carved the longest inscription, bears a good Christian name.
St Serf’s Cave at Dysart, in Fife, derived its sanctity—as the town of Dysart has derived its name—from its having been the desertum or place of retirement of the saint during his seasons of meditation and prayer. The Aberdeen Breviary states that ‘once upon a time the devil tempted the blessed St Serf with divers questions in the cave at Dysart; but confounded by the divine virtue, he went away; and from that day the said demon has appeared to no one in that cave, although the place is still held famous in honour of St Serf.’ Andrew of Wyntoun, prior of St Serf’s monastery in Lochleven, as in duty bound, gives, in his Cronykill of Scotland, a circumstantial account of this disputation with the Evil One:
Quhill Saynt Serf in till a stede
Lay eftir Maytynis in hys bede,
The devil came in full intent
For til fand him with argument;
proposing to the saint many of the questions of high theological speculation which presented themselves to the cultivated minds of the fifteenth century, and receiving orthodox, and consequently unanswerable replies to them all:
Thane sawe the devil that he coud nocht,
With all the wylis that he socht,
Ourecum Saynt Serf; he sayd than
He kend hym for a wys man;
and the saint becoming impatient of his flattery, commanded him to begone from his cave, and never more to annoy any one in it. This prohibition apparently obtained for the cave a reputation as of a place for ever freed from the temptations of the Evil One, and it continued in consequence to be used as a chapel, and largely frequented by pilgrims down almost to the Reformation.
St Adrian’s Cave at Caiplie, also on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, consists of a cluster of contiguous cavities formed by the sea washing out the softer parts of the rock. The principal cavity bears obvious marks of artificial adaptation. It is somewhat irregular in shape, but large and lofty; and the foundation courses of a wall constructed across its entrance are still visible. Near the mouth of the cave, a kind of platform or seat is shaped in the rock, and a door cut through the rock communicates with a smaller cell on the south side. On the west side, a series of steps led up to a smaller cell, in the inner part of which was a kind of bench cut in the rock, which is said to have been the hermit’s bed. In front of the cave, five human skeletons were found, four of which were regularly buried east and west, the heads to the west, but without coffins. A considerable quantity of bones of oxen, sheep, and swine, and portions of deer-horns, were found mixed with the debris in front of the cave, evidently the refuse of the food of its occupants at some remote period. On the interior of the rocky walls of the cave, many pilgrim crosses are carved, some of the equal-armed form and surrounded with a border, but mostly of the Latin form. St Adrian, whose true name was probably Odran, is represented as having settled and laboured among the Pictish people of the east parts of Scotland. His settlement in the Firth of Forth is thus described by Wyntoun:
Adriane wyth hys cumpany
Togydder cam tyl Caplawchy,
Thare sum in to the Ile off May
Chesyd to byde to thare enday.
And some off thame chesyd be northe
In steddis sere the Wattyr off Forth.
At Pittenweem, St Monance, and other places along the coast as far as Fifeness, there are several caves which have pilgrim crosses and other symbols of archaic character carved upon their rocky walls. All of these seem at one time to have been occupied as places of retreat and devotion by saints or recluses of the early Celtic Church, and doubtless are the steddis sere (that is, the ‘several places’) referred to in Wyntoun’s narrative. At Fifeness is the cave of Constantine, king of the Scots, who, after a reign of forty years, exchanged the sceptre for the pilgrim’s staff, and ‘died in the house of the Apostle;’ that is, of St Andrew. At St Andrews itself is the cave of St Rule, or rather what remains of it, for it has been much destroyed within the last half-century. Sir Walter Scott describes the palmer in Marmion as bound to fair St Andrews:
Within the ocean cave to pray,
Where good St Rule his holy lay,
From midnight to the dawn of day,
Sang to the billows’ sound;
and mentions that on one side of the cave there still remained a sort of stone altar. The Aberdeen Breviary states that St Gernadius, who settled at Kennedor, in Moray, lived in a cell partly natural, but artificially adapted for a habitation, in which he was wont to repose his wearied limbs on a bed of stone. His cave in the neighbourhood of Lossiemouth is distinguished by the holy well close beside it, which had a local reputation until quite recently, and is still known as St Gerardine’s Well. St Baldred of the Bass, who sat upon the rock in Aldhame Bay, and caused it to transport itself out of the fairway, had his cave also in the cliff opposite this rock; and traces have been found both upon the rock itself and in the cave of a long-continued occupation at a remote period.
Although the materials for the illustration of this long-forgotten phase of ecclesiastical life are so few and fragmentary, they suffice to reveal the presence in these early ages of a passionate fervour of devotion and a child-like simplicity of faith to which we are altogether strangers in these times. The systems and institutions by which they were created and fostered ‘are productions of old ages, not to be repeated in the new: they presuppose a certain rudeness of conception, which the progress of mere scientific knowledge puts an end to.’