St Comghan’s Chapel Kilchoan Estate

St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 1 Kilchoan, Kilmelford, , PA34 4XD kilchoanestate.co.uk Ancient traditional, albeit environmentally friendly, building techniques were used for the construction of St. Comghan´s Chapel

2 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 3 HISTORY AND INFLUENCES

The birth of Christianity in and the Celtic Church

It is most probable that Christianity originally came to Scotland with the Romans. They had particular influence among the Brythonic tribes of the south of Scotland, and some will have brought Christianity with them. Following the retreat and eventual collapse of the Roman empire, Scotland’s peoples were Britons in the south, Picts to the north and east, and Scots, the invaders from Ireland, on the west coast. It is likely that pockets of Christianity survived in the south and spread gradually, through trade, conquest and intermarriage.

During the following centuries missionaries from Ireland brought Christianity to the pagan Scots and Picts. In Ireland, Christianity had taken a somewhat different form from the Christianity typical of most of Europe. Heavily influenced by the Desert Fathers from Egypt, Christianity in Europe was based on a dispersed monastic system often involving “exile for Christ”, monks travelling from their homelands, seeking spiritual fulfilment and becoming engaged in missionary endeavours.

The most famous of these missionaries from Ireland are St Ninian, who came to Whithorn, and St Columba. Modern scholarship suggests that they did not bring Christianity to Scotland but strengthened and enlarged existing Christian communities.

4 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 5 Iona became a key monastic centre following its produced. It is thought that the Book of Kells, one of establishment by St Columba in 563AD. In the Celtic the greatest illuminated manuscripts of the period, may manner, the monks would have lived in individual have been produced at Iona. free-standing cells, possibly similar to the beehive Viking raids started in 794AD and the abbey was cells remaining on the nearby Garvellach islands, and plundered several times. Eventually, in 849AD, Columba’s would have come together for prayer and meals. Iona relics and the remaining treasures were removed and became a major centre of learning with a renowned the monastery was abandoned. scriptorium where many important documents were

St Comghan´s Chapel, Kilchoan Estate

6 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 7 St Comghan and Kilchoan

Kilchoan

The name Kilchoan is believed to derive from “Cille Chòmhain” or “cell of St Comghan”. St Comghan is believed to have been an 8th century Celtic monk. According to The Aberdeen Breviary, a 16th century text and the first book printed in Scotland, he was born an Irish prince and inherited his father’s kingdom. He is stated to have ruled wisely but after being shot in the foot by an arrow, and having seen too much shedding of innocent blood in warfare, he left his kingdom and became a monk in Scotland. He is believed to have Melfort Cottage founded a church in Lochalsh, where he lived as a hermit, and to have been buried on Iona. As with all Celtic saints, the hagiography may be little more than legend, but we Chapel and do know that a chapel or monastery here was dedicated burial ground to St Comghan, probably by monks from Iona. The first historical record of the name is in the Regesta Regum Scottorum of 1313, and the name appears again on Blaeu’s map of 1654. The exact location is unclear but is thought close to the Kilchoan farmhouse.

8 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 9 Celtic Art Romanesque Architecture

From the great Celtic monastic centres came a wide range of decorative items, particularly illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and stone carving. Technically known as “Insular Art”, this style developed out of the earlier “la Tène”, typified by complex geometric spirals, and was also influenced by Mediterranean and Germanic traditions. This style became dominant in the

British Isles, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, from the Stained glass window, St Margaret´s Roman withdrawal through to the development of the Chapel, Castle Romanesque style in the 10th and 11th centuries, and strongly influenced the development of art throughout Europe. Romanesque architecture spread across Europe in the Celtic art is typified by highly complex geometric patterns 10th and 11th centuries. It combines features of ancient combined with stylised figures, animals and plants. Roman and Byzantine architecture and is typified Typical patterns included knotwork, spirals and key by massive walls, semi-circular arches and complex patterns. While these were common in other styles, geometric detail. Floor plans tend to consist of simple including Greek and Roman, in Celtic art they developed geometric forms, without the complexities seen in earlier to a level of complexity not seen elsewhere. Byzantine or later Gothic architecture.

The Romanesque style came to Britain with the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and spread to Scotland as the Norman influence grew, in particular during the reign of David I from 1124-1153. David was the son of Malcolm III, “Malcolm Canmore”, and Queen Margaret, who was canonised in 1250 as St Margaret of Scotland. She is celebrated in the porch window of the chapel. This was a period of huge growth of monastic building in Scotland as the church came fully into line with Rome and monastic orders grew. Major buildings of this period include the abbeys at Kelso, Jedburgh, Holyrood and .

10 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 11 The Chapel is the St Margaret’s Chapel oldest building in Edinburgh and is believed to date from the reign of David I (1124 -1153). It was the only building left standing when destroyed the Castle in 1314

One of the earliest Romanesque buildings in Scotland is St Margaret’s Chapel in Edinburgh. The tiny chapel is within Edinburgh Castle and may have been built by David I in memory of his mother, St Margaret.

Views of St Margaret´s Chapel The chapel has a rectangular barrel-vaulted nave and a vaulted apse, typical of small chapels of the time. The walls are pierced by small arch-headed windows and the building is undecorated save for the chancel arch and stained-glass windows dating from 1922.

The building was much altered during use as a munitions store from the 16th to 19th centuries. In 1845 the chapel, then used as a storehouse at the west end of the 18th century garrison chapel, was rediscovered. Surrounding buildings, including the garrison chapel, were demolished, and a simple restoration was carried out in 1851-2.

12 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 13 Iona Abbey

Michael Chapel St Oran´s Chapel

In 1203 Ranald, the Lord of the Isles and son of the In the late 19th century the Duke of Argyll transferred famous Somerled, invited the Benedictine order to the ruined buildings to the Iona Cathedral Trust and establish a new monastery on the site of St Columba’s restoration of the abbey church was started. In 1938, The original monastic foundation. The Benedictine Abbey Rev. George MacLeod founded the Iona Community, Church of St Mary dates from around that time. Its an ecumenical Christian community, which rebuilt the cruciform plan is an altogether grander structure than abbey. The Iona Community still occupies the abbey the chapel of St Comghan but the complex includes the and is actively involved in issues of peace and justice much smaller and simpler Michael Chapel and St Oran’s and in exploring new forms of worship. Chapel. The abbey was expanded in the 15th century The stonework of the Iona buildings blends large pieces but, like many others, was abandoned and fell into ruin of roughly dressed red and grey granite with black schist following the Scottish Reformation. “pinnings”, the small stones between the larger ones. These dressed and carved stone elements were the The Benedictine Abbey Church of St Mary inspiration for the stonework of St Comghan’s Chapel.

The granite used for the abbey and chapels on Iona was brought from Tormore quarry at on Mull, one of the more important granite quarries in Scotland. “Ross of Mull” granite from Tormore gained a substantial reputation and was widely used in Britain for bridges and lighthouses and in the building of Glasgow University. The stone is attractive, coarse-grained and reddish-brown in colour. This quarry was said to have produced the largest granite blocks in the UK at over 16 metres long. The quarry fell into disuse but was reopened for a time in the 1990s and the stone used at St Comghan’s was quarried at that time.

14 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 15 ST COMGHAN’S CHAPEL

The building St Comghan’s Chapel at Kilchoan grew out of all these influences and yet is a 21st century building designed to become a meeting place for all people touched by the beauty and mystery of God’s Creation and attracted to the challenges the world faces today.

The chosen site is beside the sea, on a track between the house and jetty and backing onto mature native woodland. The chapel faces due east, a convention adhered to very strictly by the Celtic church. Sweeping steps behind a dry-stone wall create a transition area from secular to sacred before entry through a porch at the northwest corner.

Internally, the chapel comprises three spaces, porch, nave and apse. These are built on the simple geometric proportions of a square, a golden rectangle and a circle. The internal space is beneath a traditional loadbearing

16 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 17 stone vault, a semi-circular barrel vault over the nave The chancel arch combines Romanesque chevrons with and a half-dome over the chancel apse. The pattern of a band of Celtic key pattern that forms a single path the floor tiles reflects the geometry of the three spaces, taking a circuitous route from one side of the arch to the and this geometry is also seen where the circle of the other, with the cross above the centre of the arc being vault exactly meets the floor below. the means of access to God. The central keystone, symbolising Christ (“the stone that the builders rejected” The building consists of simple forms, massive – Matthew 21:42), is flanked by six stones on each side, walls and small windows, contrasted with intricate symbolising the twelve apostles sent out into the world. decoration in selected areas. Like the Iona chapels, it is Romanesque in style yet it also celebrates the early Further detail is picked out in the specially cast bronze Celtic Christianity of St Comghan. This 21st century door handles which tell the story of St Comghan. The design is unapologetically eclectic, combining stylised ring handle echoes the shape of an ancient Celtic torc designs typical of Romanesque architecture with Celtic to reflect his origins as an Irish prince and king, while the key patterns and knotwork. back plates are based on St John’s Cross on Iona and tell of his leaving that life behind and becoming a monk The design also makes use of the symbolic numbers in Scotland. Like much Celtic knotwork, the pattern on of three, for the Trinity, and seven, for the Creation, these is formed of a single continuous loop circling perfection and Sabbath rest. This is seen particularly in around the cross. the three windows to the nave and the number of stones in the apse vault. The only concessions to modernity in construction are electric lighting and a heating mat in the floor, the latter not so much for human comfort as for fabric protection.

18 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 19 20 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 21 St Comghan´s Chapel has been conceived as a symbol of unity, of our common destiny, open to all

22 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 23 The Windows

History The design for the chapel is traditional: it is intended to evoke the Christian history of the West of Scotland. The design for the stained glass is intended to be in the same character and have a similar reference. Various stages in the history of stained glass making are acknowledged in its overall design and in its detailing.

Medieval glass was leaded with a single colour for each piece of glass. Very little evidence survives for the appearance of the earliest form of glass set in lead but there is sufficient to indicate that early ecclesiastical stained glass followed the pattern of Byzantine icons: single figures depicting Christ, the Mother of God, and other saints. This would not be surprising since the same approach was taken in the initial stages of other crafts and arts such as mosaic and sculpture. Similar theology and symbols would have been used.

The high point of stained glass making was in the Gothic period from the 12th century. Stained glass makers rose to the challenge of massive windows in cathedrals. Some of the first written records of the aspirations for stained glass are in the instructions of Abbot Suger during the construction of the abbey church at St Denis, Paris, in the 12th century. The stained glass of the 13th- 15th centuries was highly ambitious and technically skilled. Windows were beautiful works of craft used to carry important messages by showing biblical

24 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 25 scenes, the life of Christ and the lives of the saints, to and can be seen in the windows in St Margaret’s Chapel congregations few of whom could read or write and in Edinburgh Castle by Douglas Strachan in 1922 and most of whom would not have understood the words of William Wilson’s window in Iona Abbey depicting St the liturgy in Latin. Over this period there was a general Columba. This continued tradition was influential in trend from using smaller, strongly coloured pieces of the design of the windows at St Comghan’s Chapel. glass to larger pieces with a greater dependence on The three Scottish saints in the south windows were clear glass, on drawing, and on silver nitrate stain which chosen because of the location of the chapel and their gives a yellow highlight. association with St Comghan. There are few records Church architecture changed radically during the 17th of the early Scottish saints, some of St Columba but and 18th centuries with the Renaissance interest in comparatively little is known about the other saints, classical architecture. The skills of carving, wall painting especially their appearance. and stained glass in the Gothic tradition were no longer It is ancient church tradition that behind the altar there needed, particularly in countries such as Scotland where should be an image of the Mother of God holding there developed a Presbyterian mistrust of decorative the infant Christ. The other four windows portray arts. It became possible to make much larger sheets St Margaret, known as the Pearl of Scotland, and of glass for windows, and where painted glass was the three saints who are particularly associated with used, it was generally as a standard painting applied Celtic Christianity in the west of Scotland: St Columba, in enamels and fired to make it permanent. The Gothic St Kentigern, and the saint to whom the chapel is idea of using the leads between pieces of glass as part dedicated, St Comghan. of the drawing and the visual structure of a window had gone out of fashion.

The Gothic Revival had both religious and Romantic components. It was the architectural style of a religious revival looking back to Gothic buildings as the high point of religious architecture. The medieval period was also considered to be a high point in the practice of worship. In Scotland, as in many other countries, the Gothic Revival was also a response to a romantic wish to revive the Scotland of the past, when it was independent of its neighbours and had a strong Christian and Celtic identity. The revival of medieval stained-glass techniques was a central part of the Gothic Revival. Towards the end of the 19th century, Scottish craftsmen and women developed their own style of stained glass. This was refined from the Gothic Revival using motifs from Celtic art together with contemporary Aesthetic St Comghan St Columba St Kentigern Movement, Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau detailing. This type of design continued into the 20th century

26 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 27 The Mother of God and Christ

The strongest and brightest glass in the chapel scheme, colours rich and traditional, in the window in the apse behind the altar.

On the red robes, there are stars that in an icon would be painted in gold. In the background there are graphic lines suggesting tartan, for Scotland. The Mother of God stands on a cushion that has a band of gold glass, and the flowers and leaves around her feet are painted free- hand. The dark blue colours represent the cave where Christ was born.

At the top of the window is a dove representing the Holy Spirit, as in the theophany scene. The colours are strong but the texture of the glass also has a big impact and the border has detail painted in to provide contrast.

28 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 29 St Margaret

St Margaret is known as the Pearl of Scotland for her purity, faith and good works. She rebuilt the Iona churches after they had fallen into disrepair once the centre of Christianity in Scotland had moved towards Rome and the islands and sea routes around Scotland had become plagued by Norsemen.

St Margaret is shown on a boat, travelling from Hungary where she was born in exile as a member of the Anglo- Saxon royal family in the 11th century. St Margaret has the fine robes that are appropriate for a royal princess and later queen of Scotland. She holds a pearl indicating her personal qualities and to remind us of the parable in Matthew 13:45-52, where the Kingdom of Heaven is described as “a pearl of great price” making all earthly possessions worthless.

She holds a scroll depicting her life story, from exile with the royal family in Hungary, where she was born, her marriage to King Malcolm III of Scotland and her ordering the ferry across the River Forth for pilgrims travelling to St Andrews. Four of her eight children become kings of Scotland, while her daughter Matilda married Henry I of England.

30 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 31 St Comghan

As the saint to whom the chapel is dedicated and after whom the place was named, Comghan is placed to the east of the three saints in the south windows in the nave. He holds the chapel in his left hand and blesses with his right. This is a frequent form of depiction in icon painting.

While most of the background has been kept light or clear, to allow the outside light and landscape to be a part of the chapel, there are different shades of green, some painted with blue and green to create a grass background with the trees reflecting the woods on the Kilchoan Estate and the blue suggesting Loch Melfort.

32 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 33 St Columba

St Columba, the father of Christianity in Scotland, is placed at the centre of the three Celtic saints. He is dressed for travelling, as a saint famous for the distances covered in his lifetime, from Ireland and around Scotland.

The waters at the base of the window represent the Irish Sea and the sea around Iona. The details of the abbey and the carved Celtic cross represent his Iona heritage, as do the sand and pebbles. The hills, clouds and pale blue sky connect to the other saints’ windows and the Scottish landscape.

34 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 35 St Kentigern

St Kentigern, also known as St Mungo, is the patron saint of Glasgow and Strathclyde. He is believed to have met St Columba, so having their windows next to each other is appropriate. His bible is decorated in red and blue.

Kentigern is shown with the symbols of the miracles he performed, mentioned in the poem:

Here is the bird that never flew Here is the tree that never grew Here is the bell that never rang Here is the fish that never swam

36 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 37 The bird : Kentigern restored life to a robin that had been killed by some of his classmates.

The tree : left in charge of a fire in Saint Serf’s monastery, Kentigern fell asleep and the fire went out. Taking a hazel branch, he restarted the fire.

The bell : this is thought to have been brought by Kentigern from Rome. It was said to have been used in services and to mourn the deceased. The original bell no longer exists but a replacement, cast in the 1640s, is on display in Glasgow.

The fish : refers to the story about Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde who was suspected of infidelity by her husband, King Riderch. He demanded to see her ring, which he claimed she had given to her lover although, in reality, the King had thrown it into the river Clyde. Faced with execution, Languoreth appealed for help to Kentigern who ordered a messenger to catch a fish in the river. The ring was miraculously found inside the fish, enabling the Queen to clear her name.

The designs for these three saints’ windows use similar colours and lines between the backgrounds of trees, land and water. This unites them in an important part of the story of early Christianity in Scotland.

38 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 39 THE VISION

Nicolas Ibanez Scott purchased Kilchoan Estate in 2015. Nicolas is Chilean, with strong family links to Scotland. His vision for Kilchoan reflects a passion for its breathtakingly beautiful West Coast setting, its history and its natural environment. He has a strong desire to understand, reinvigorate and celebrate the landscape and to create an enduring sense of place.

St Comghan’s Chapel celebrates this understanding and appreciation of Kilchoan and its history, and it has created a unique opportunity for exploration and revival of traditional craft skills.

40 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 41 THE DESIGN TEAM

and its ancient buildings many times. Growing up, he was influenced by his father’s passion for Celtic art, in particular for carved Pictish stones.

Neil used 3D computer modelling to work out the detailed design of the building. Each cut and dressed stone, including the complex stones of the half dome of the chancel, was drawn at full scale to provide templates for the masons. Several meetings with the stone carvers were required to explain exactly how these needed to be translated into the physical reality of stone. Neil McAllister, Particularly challenging was setting out the patterns of the architect the chancel arch stones: because these have doubly- curved surfaces, paper templates could not be made and instead reliance had to be placed on the stone carver’s skill to work from a flat drawing.

The architect The chapel was designed to Nicolas Ibanez Scott’s brief by Edinburgh architects GLM. The project architect was Neil McAllister. Neil trained at Strathclyde University and has a postgraduate degree in Architectural Conservation from Edinburgh College of Art.

Neil is a thoroughly contemporary architect who also has a deep love and understanding of traditional building and historic architecture. The chapel is his first building of almost entirely traditional construction, using loadbearing stonework built in lime mortar, stone vaulting and oak joinery, in a design tradition going back 800 years or more.

Neil has always loved the simplicity, solidity and apparent permanence of Romanesque architecture, and the wild landscapes of the west of Scotland. He has visited Iona

42 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 43 The engineer The window designers

John Charlton of Elliott and Co, Edinburgh, conservation Katherine and John Sanders were the designers of the engineers, assisted with the structural design. While stained-glass windows. there are many firms that will happily calculate the sizes The figures, symbolism and design of the windows of steel and concrete beams, there are few who can just were by Katherine Sanders. Katherine is a painter of as happily work out the required thickness and restraint Orthodox Christian icons in the Byzantine tradition. Her for a stone vault. husband, John Sanders, is a partner in the architectural firm of Simpson & Brown. They worked together on the development of the design and had discussions with stained glass makers in Scotland to understand how the design could be communicated to a specialist maker of stained glass. A structure based on borders and circles was introduced to the design to connect with the chapel architecture of round-headed windows but also to suggest the kind of structure that is used for decoration on Celtic carved elements such as crosses and grave slabs.

Katherine and John Sanders

44 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 45 This drawing is the copyright of Simpson & Brown Architects m m 0 5 8

. x o r p p a

approx. 300mm

The figures, symbolism and design of the windows were by Katherine Sanders. She is a painter of Orthodox Christian icons in the Byzantine tradition

2266.03 Kilchoan Chapel Mother of God September 2017

Simpson & Brown Architects

46 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 47 The contractor

Ardle Construction were chosen at an early stage to work with GLM on the design, in the knowledge that entirely traditional construction techniques had not been employed in a wholly new building for many years, possibly for generations. Ian Cumming’s work restoring historic buildings and his experience of building stone vaulting and working in lime and oak were known to Neil, and he and Ian worked closely throughout the design and construction process. The Ardle team from Perthshire were ably supplemented by skilled local stonemasons.

48 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 49 CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING

The chapel is traditionally constructed in solid, loadbearing masonry. Granite was split and dressed by hand on site. Some of the stones were left as fairly large boulders that go all the way through the 750mm thick walls. Those for the apse were dressed to a curved face. These large, irregular granite stones are brought to near- regular courses with flat grey pinnings in the manner found on the ruined nunnery and other buildings on Iona. All are set in a hydraulic lime mortar and pointed with a mortar of quicklime, sand and oyster shells. The only concessions to modern construction are the concrete foundations and floor slab.

Although individual elements of the construction were well known and understood from previous building restoration projects, the construction of a whole new building using almost entirely traditional methods of construction was new to the designers and the construction team. There was no obvious precedent by which to gauge how long it would take or, indeed, how much it would cost. In relation to the programme, the “critical path” was largely set by the carving and delivery of the dressed stone elements: the rubble stone construction on site and the off-site stone carving were inextricably linked.

Early in the construction process it became clear that a temporary roof over the whole building would allow a careful and methodical build to proceed in all weathers, an advantage unavailable to builders in times past.

50 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 51 One of the first tasks was to locate a source of granite. Ian ascertained that suitable stone was still available from Tormore quarry, the same quarry used for the buildings on Iona. Although the quarry is no longer in active use a substantial quantity of stone had previously been extracted. Around thirty tonnes of this stone were purchased from Argyll Estates, and no new quarrying was required. This granite proved to be extremely hard to work, breaking off in much smaller flakes than anticipated, even using tools unavailable to builders of old. The curved wall of the apse was a particular challenge. Being able to obtain the stone for the chapel from this quarry helped to realise Nicolas’s dream of a building that faithfully echoes the delightful work of medieval church masons.

For the pinnings, two sources were used. Most is Burlington Blue Grey walling stone, supplemented with stone from a demolished building on the neighbouring Degnish Estate, probably the local Craignish phyllite.

The vaults, dressings and carved stone are Blaxter sandstone, cut and carved off site by Forth Stone. While most of the building is in simple geometric forms, intricate carving picks out the entrance and the chancel arch. This was expertly handled by their carver, Zenon Przelasa.

The main roof is of cut-rafter construction above the stone vault, and the entrance vestibule roof timbers are oak. The roof is covered with salvaged Easdale slate. This is originally from the quarry only four miles from the site, although no slate has been extracted since the 1950s and most production ceased a century earlier when the quarries were flooded in a major storm.

The building is topped with a bellcote in which hangs one of the last bells to be cast at the renowned Whitechapel Foundry before it closed.

As with the buildings from which it takes its lead, the completed chapel has been designed and built to last.

52 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 53 MANUFACTURE OF THE STAINED GLASS

The manufacture of the stained glass at St Comghan’s Chapel was commissioned from the Spanish company Arte Granda, a world leader in sacred art, which seeks to preserve the knowledge of a trade that was born hundreds of years ago, incorporating innovations of the 21st century.

The work of Arte Granda is to bring God closer to people through sacred art and beauty in liturgical objects. To quote its founder, Felix Granda Buylla: “that the work of the silversmith, the carver and the chiseller may be work of true art, of great value, being an expression of an idea, in a beautiful and heartfelt way.”

54 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 55 Katherine and John wanted to avoid being prescriptive about the way the glass was drawn and made. They were aware that Arte Granda have many skills, techniques and ideas to contribute from their vast experience and so influence the quality of the glass.

In St Comghan’s Chapel the stained-glass windows are breathtaking, extraordinary works of art, hand-made by talented Spanish artisans. The firm also received the commission to decorate the interior and provide the chapel plate for services.

Luis Manuel Rodríguez, designer Francisco Pozo, designer at Arte Granda at Arte Granda

“that the work of the silversmith, the carver and the chiseller may be work of true art, of great value, being an expression of an idea, in a beautiful and heartfelt way“.

Felix Granda Buylla

56 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 57 COMPLETION

On 12th April 2018, The Rt. Rev. Brian McGee, Bishop of Argyll and The Isles, visited the chapel. He prayed that the chapel might be a place where those seeking understanding in the beauty of God’s Creation would find meaning within the beauty of human craftsmanship.

To the architect standing back and looking at it now, there is something slightly strange about the chapel. It still looks new, but a few wild west-coast winters will quickly settle it into the landscape. In time, this story of its design and construction will be just a small part of the history of the chapel. As Nicolas Ibanez Scott has stated, “Nobody can really own a chapel”. This building has been designed to last and will stand as a place of quiet contemplation and worship for the enjoyment of generations to come.

Soli Deo Gloria

58 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 59 Kilchoan, Kilmelford, Oban, Argyll PA34 4XD kilchoanestate.co.uk

60 • St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate