32957: MEALISTA, LEWIS – CHURCH (Undated), Graveyard (Undated), STONE (Undated), SITE (Undated)

Summary:

CHURCH (Undated)
Graveyard (Undated)
STONE (Undated)
SITE (Undated)
And 9897 2421 and 9900 2418, church and graveyard, possibly dedicated to St Catan

Location:

NA 99017 24180

Full description:

NA92SE 1 9902 2421, 9897 2421 and 9900 2418.

(Area NA 990 242) Grave Yard (NAT). (NA 990 2418) Stone (NAT)
OS 6"map, (1965)

(NA 9902 2421) The foundations of an oblong church, 25′ by 15’8" over walls 2’8" thick and orientated south of east and north of west,lie about 200 yds west of Mealista farm-house. A small burying ground lies between the church and the sea.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914.

"Teampull Mhealastadh" is an old grave yard only occasionally used. There has never been a church or any kind of meeting house in or about this place, as far as can be ascertained.
‘Clach Mhor an Teampull’ is an irregular stone 9′ high by 12′ wide in the grave-yard. ‘It is of no note except its size’.
Name Book 1928.

There was a shrine of St Catan at Maelista (as opposed to the nunnery at NA92SE 3)
W C Mackenzie 1919

The graveyard, unenclosed and no longer in use, is at NA 9897 2421. Unable to locate any remains of the church described by RCAHMS in an area which has been utilized by wartime military structures.
No further information regarding the ‘Shrine of St Catan’.
Visited by OS (R L) 30 June 1969.

Chapel complex and cemetery identified on coastal erosion survey 1996.
Burgess & Church 1997

References:

The book of the Lews: the story of a Hebridean isle’, Publisher: Alexander Gardner, The Book of the Lews: the story of a Hebridean Isle. 137-8
Original Name Books of the Ordnance Survey, Name Books of the Ordnance Survey. Book No. 78, 64-5
RCAHMCS. 1928. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Ninth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, Publisher: HMSO The RCAHMS 9th Report and Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. 18, No. 66
Burgess, Christopher & Church, Michael. 1997. 2 volumes, surveyed 1996, covering the 100m above the high tide line, and the intertidal zone. Coastal Erosion Assessment, Lewis. A Report for Historic Scotland.

Acknowledgement:

Information provided by Western Isles Council Sites & Monuments Record, January 2006.