stirling-1963-vol-1/05_202

Transcription

No. 164 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 164
it seems possible that one of these corners, located on the
edge of a rocky scarp immediately SE. of the church,
was misunderstood by the excavator and led to his
marking a small circular building in this position. Other-
wise nothing resembling a "cell" was found by the
Commissioner's officers.

TOMBSTONES (Fig. 59). (i) The coped stone noted by
the excavator still lies on the surface near the E. end of
the church. It is 6 ft. 4 in. long, 1 ft. 7 in. broad by 1 ft.
high at the head and 1 ft. 2 in. broad by 10 in. high at the
foot. Its traverse section forms a lop-sided heptagonal
figure; the plain longitudinal panels are separated at the
angles by quirked roll-mouldings, and these are also
returned round the ends. (ii) Not recorded by the
excavator is a recumbent slab 5 ft. 6 in. long and tapering
in breadth from 2 ft. to 1 ft. 9 in. It bears a Calvary cross
on which appears a two-handed sword with depressed
quillons, now badly weathered but illustrated here from
a sketch made in 1903.¹ The same sketch also shows the
secondary inscription 1621 C / W M A ² near the base
of the cross; the date is now illegible, and the first letter
might be C or G. (iii) Another unrecorded memorial is a
table-tomb bearing a sunken shield charged: A pine-tree
debruised of a baton sinister, for McGregor of that Ilk. ³
At the head of the slab is the motto INDIW (for "E'en
do") AND SPAIRE NOT, and an inscription com-
memorates G [REGOR] MGREGOR OF THAT ILK and
gives the date of his death as 1693. ⁴
In addition to the foregoing, which were all seen by
the Commission's officers, at least two more carved slabs
were evidently found in 1903, as sketched of them by
Brydall are in the Reverend Mr. Fulton's keeping. No
doubt they have been overgrown after the passage of
fifty years. The sketches (Fig. 59) show them to have
been as follows: (iv) A slab 6 ft. 3 in. long and tapering
from 1 ft. 9 in. to 1 ft. 4 in. in breadth. It bears an inter-
laced ring-cross above a sword with depressed quillons,
which is also flanked by interlaced work. The margin of
the stone is formed by a rope moulding. (v) Fragments
of a slab now reduced to a length of 3 ft. 4 1/2 in. and
bearing an incised Latin cross-head with fleur-de-lys
terminals and the letters I H S at the intersection.
These seem to correspond with two of the three carved
slabs mentioned in the excavation report, ⁵ where mention
is also made of another cross-slab showing I H S at the
intersection and, in addition, a pair of shears. The
excavator further records the discovery, in a position
which would have put it directly in front of the altar,
of a large slab of white sandstone with bones underneath
it. He suggests that this was the grave of St. Kentigerna.

NS 410906 -- N xiii ("Church, ruins of") -- 13 May 1953

164. Cashel, Strathcashell Point. This structure is
situated on the point of a low-lying promontory on the E.
shore of Loch Lomond, at a distance of a quarter of a
mile WSW. of Strathcashell farmhouse. It is surrounded
by the loch on all sides except the E., but the approach
from this direction is over ground so level and open that
the situation cannot be said to be one of real strength.
No attempt has been made to impede approach to the
structure by cutting the point of the promontory off from
the adjoining land by a defensive barrier.
The remains (Fig. 60) consist primarily of the ruin

[Plan Inserted]
Fig. 60. Cashel, Strathcashell Point (No. 164)

of a drystone wall, 6 ft. in thickness, which encloses an
oval area measuring 93 ft. from N. to S. by 80 ft. trans-
versely. The wall is built of large blocks of undressed
stone; a total of about 40 ft. of the inner face is visible,
while about one half of the outer face can be followed.
This is due to a recent clearance of parts of the faces. A
stretch of the SE. arc of the outer face, 10 ft. in length,
in which three courses remain in situ, stands to a height
of 4 ft. 6 in. above ground level. The entrance, which has
been mutilated, is centrally placed in the E. arc. For a
distance of 40 ft. on either side of it the wall runs N. and
S. to meet the crests of the rocky slopes, some 10 ft. in
height, which flank the point. It runs thence round the
W. extremity of the promontory, clinging to and merging
with the bedrock. In two places, in the SSW. and NW.
arcs, stretches of the wall have been undermined by the
destruction of the bedrock, presumably by the action of
the waves, and tumbled debris lies upon the foreshore.
In the N. part of the interior lies the ruin of a rectilinear
building measuring 36 ft. in length from NE. to SW. by
15 ft. transversely within walls 3 ft. thick, which appear
to be of drystone construction. There is an entrance 3 ft.
wide in the NE. part of the SE. wall. Between the NE.

1 Signed "R. Brydall, Glasgow", and now in the keeping of
the Reverend F. Fulton, Balmaha.
2 Guthrie Smith gives the date as 1695 (Strathendrick, 101).
3 The baton sinister should have been a sword in bend. The
Lord Lyon suggests that the reversal probably arose through
the carving having been made from a seal matrix, and that the
carver mistook the sword for a baton.
4 MacGregor, A. G. M., History of the Clan Gregor, ii, 191.
5 T.G.A.S., as cited, 81; ibid, v, part 1, 26 f.

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