Wednesday 5 April 2017

St Comghan's Structure

At the west end of St Comghan's church there is a square structure built of stone - arrowed - which extends out from the gable wall. It has an entrance and its wall stands about a metre high. It could be a family 'lair', a bit like the one in the centre foreground, but it lacks any sign of a memorial stones, be they headstones or slabs.

It has been suggested that it might have been a place where coffins were placed before the funeral service - even that coffins did not enter the church at all.

Does anyone know what the structure is. In particular, if it wasn't a lair, and had a specific use, would it have had a roof?

3 comments:

  1. Hi I have seen Kirks like this one on the west coast mainland on Kintyre, they were raised platforms where crosses were erected ( think that there is one like this on Mull, but I can;t recall where David Hunter

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  2. Many thanks, David. I'll follow that up with the Mull Historical Society. Jon

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    Replies
    1. It's most likely to be a burial enclosure Jon, possibly built following the 18th century re-construction works.

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