THE P RTAL
July 2018 Page 19
Christian one . The other one has the interlaced cross , so that ’ s Christian . A lot of the Vikings were Christian .
“ The Irish Kings and Scandinavian Kings which are here , is probably true . There is no written evidence but in 1200 Somerled , the first Lord of the Isles , built the chapel . It was built as the Lords of the Isles family mausoleum . It was started by him before 1200 and probably finished by his son . It was specifically for the Lords of the Isles . Now because they were taking over this area , they conquered here and started taking over the Hebrides .
“ Around 1160 , they would have built the mausoleum close to the kings they knew at that time were buried here , or royalty or famous - people of importance . Because they were claiming areas , their mausoleum would have been right on the edge of the grave at 1160 and that would have been at the Ros , my guide south of the church , and probably the front of the church , because by St John ’ s Cross there are some very ancient burial stones . Now we have no archaeological evidence . A lot of the areas are now fifteen feet deep , part of that is because in 1400 ’ s they extended the church and 1900 ’ s they repaired the church . Then 1939 – 1969 , when they repaired the rest of the building , there was a lot of rubble .
“ There is also the street of the dead , which was excavated in the 60s . All of the dirt from that has been spread around so , when the archaeologists performed their digs , ( last May and twice this May ) they had to go down six feet before they got to the original ground level . They have found buildings but that wasn ’ t really what they were looking for .
“ Under the church there is something totally different . In the 1900s they decided to repair the church , they brought the archaeologists in . Remember , they had different technology to what we have now . They thought they found the remains of three buildings underneath the present church . So , if there were three buildings under that church in 1200 , the assumption can be made that it ’ s the site of the original church . Also , underneath this church there are a lot of bodies . When they lifted up the stones that had fallen from the wall . The floor was damaged , so they lifted up those stones and found many bodies , some of which were intact , which was a surprise because mainly they would just expect bones .
“ When you go in the church , where those people have lain for centuries , the stones have been marked
with a cross . If future generations have to lift the stones , they know that they have to take care of the intact bodies which are lying underneath them . If there are bodies under that church there are also going to be bodies under the three other churches . This church has covered up some of the accent sites because this was probably a sacred site before Columbus ’ time .
Columbus came from Ireland with 12 companions in 563 . When he came , there was a vallum – an earth embankment around the monastery - only part of which remains , covering about twenty acres . Much has been washed away , but what remains is quite impressive . That was started in Christian times but the exploratory digs they have made this year ( and in 2013 / 14 ) show the vallum was started at least three hundred years before Columbus came here .
“ We don ’ t really know what it was for , but there has always been talk of it being a burial site for kings . This does not mean necessarily just kings of the Scots , as we know already there are Viking burials here , but it could also be pre-Christian . There is a well just outside the church that was definitely used in pre-Christian times . This is good agriculture land ; on the west side there is an Iron Age hill fort with Bronze Age burials . People have been here thousands and thousands of years . We must remember that these stories don ’ t start from nothing .
We are grateful to Ros for her time and for sharing her knowledge with us .
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