St Comghan's Chapel
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St Comghan’s Chapel Kilchoan Estate St. Comghan´s Chapel / Kilchoan Estate • 1 Kilchoan, Kilmelford, Oban, Argyll 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 Scotland 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, Edinburgh 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 St Andrews. 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 Robert the Bruce 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 Fionnphort 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.