“The chancel is covered by a low waggon vault, between which and the external roof there is a chamber lighted by a square window in the apex of the west gable. In the east end of the chancel ([Fig. 54]) are two small round-headed windows placed considerably apart, the north one, like the window at the neighbouring Kiels, having its interior sill underdrawn and levelled for an altar.
Fig. 53.
“In the interior south wall is a large round-headed recess, containing the tomb and headless effigy of an ecclesiastic, and in the wall opposite are two smaller recesses of the same kind—the eastern one having a window behind and a square lychnoscopic-looking aperture on one side near the ground.
“The chancel evidently belongs to an early period, and in style mostly resembles Norman, though some alterations (designed, there can be no doubt, to procure more shelter) have somewhat modified the pristine character of its detail. Originally the entrance was by a round doorway in the north side of the nave; but this has been built up, and another one, square and smaller, opened through the wall opposite. The window lights have all been reduced by the inserting of a slate pierced with a short and narrow lancet—that on the south, in the east end, plain
Fig. 54.—Church of St. Carmaig, Eilean Mor. Exterior Elevation of East End.
pointed, the other one trefoiled. But the most important alteration is in the chancel arch ([Fig. 55]), which has been lessened by blocking to a small flat-topped doorway with a square hole right through the wall on each side of it; over each of these holes, within the chancel, is an ambry of the usual square form.”