Kingarth ( sga, Cenn Garad; gd, Ceann a' Gharaidh) is a historic village and parish on the
Isle of Bute
The Isle of Bute ( sco, Buit; gd, Eilean Bhòid or '), known as Bute (), is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault.
Formerly a constituent is ...
, off the coast of south-western Scotland. The village is within the parish of its own name, and is situated at the junction of the
A844 and B881. In the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
it was the site of a
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...
and
bishopric
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
and the cult centre of Saints
Cathan and
Bláán (
Anglicized
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...
: ''Blane'').
St Blane's Church and monastery
![St Blane's Church](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/St_Blane%27s_Church.jpg)
Located to the north of
Kilchattan Bay, Kingarth was the central religious site for the
Cenél Comgaill
Comgall mac Domangairt was king of Dál Riata in the early 6th century. He was the son of Domangart Réti and grandson of Fergus Mór. The ''Annals of Ulster'' report his death in 538, 542 and 545, the ''Annals of Tigernach'' in 537.
Comgall
N ...
kindred of
Dál Riata
Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is n ...
(after which
Cowal
Cowal ( gd, Còmhghall) is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, that extends into the Firth of Clyde.
The northern part of the peninsula is covered by the Argyll Forest Park managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. The Arroch ...
is named), just as
Lismore was for the
Cenél Loairn
The Cenél Loairn, the descendants of Loarn mac Eirc, controlled parts of northern Argyll around the Firth of Lorne, most probably centred in Lorne but perhaps including the islands of Mull and Colonsay, Morvern and Ardnamurchan. The boundary to ...
and
Iona for the
Cenél nGabráin
The Cenél nGabráin was a kingroup, presumed to descend from Gabrán mac Domangairt, which dominated the kingship of Dál Riata until the late 7th century and continued to provide kings thereafter. Kings of Alba and of Scotland traced their desc ...
. It is close to the southern tip of the Isle of Bute, less than from the early historic
hill-fort
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
of "Little Dunagoil", which may have been the chief secular site of the kindred.
The ruins of St Blane's Church are surprisingly extensive, situated in a sheltered hollow near the top of a south facing slope. The site has views south to the Isle of Arran and Holy Island. Most of the remains, of the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and part of the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
, date from the 1100s. In the 1300s the chancel was enlarged; the east end of the church is less well constructed than the remaining parts. There is a finely-carved
Romanesque chancel arch
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
. In the grounds are the remains of a well and the foundations of a
manse, which was still in use in the 16th century.
[
There are upper and lower churchyards, where men and women respectively were buried; both have a large number of fairly worn grave slabs, one or two of which have traces of decoration. In the lower churchyard there are the remains of another building thought to have been of a small chapel. In the upper churchyard is a hogback tombstone, often wrongly said to mark the tomb of St Blane, and which dates to the 900s or 1000s. It shows that the ]Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pr ...
who settled here, after the monastery was abandoned, eventually became Christians themselves. The upper churchyard contains the graves of 7th- and 8th-century bishops and abbots. There is also the family plot of Sir William Macewen (1848-1924), the notable surgeon who lived at nearby Garrochty.[
A structure known as the "Devil's Cauldron", with walls thick and about high, is thought to have been either a part of the original monastery or an older ]dun
A dun is an ancient or medieval fort. In Ireland and Britain it is mainly a kind of hillfort and also a kind of Atlantic roundhouse.
Etymology
The term comes from Irish ''dún'' or Scottish Gaelic ''dùn'' (meaning "fort"), and is cognat ...
.
The centre for Saint Bláán's cult had probably moved to the mainland to Dunblane
Dunblane (, gd, Dùn Bhlàthain) is a small town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links ...
in Strathearn
Strathearn or Strath Earn (, from gd, Srath Èireann) is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland, extending from Loch Earn in the West to the River Tay in the east.http://www.strathearn.com/st_where.htm Derivation of name Strathearn was on ...
under the influence of Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
attacks in the 9th century, perhaps like the movement of the relics of Saint Cuthbert
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of ...
to the bishopric of Lindisfarne and those of Saint Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...
to the bishopric of Dunkeld. Despite this, it survived as a religious site to become one of only two parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
es on the island, the other being Rothesay
Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward rail ...
; it was part of the diocese of the Isles
The Diocese of the Isles, also known as the Diocese of Suðreyar, or the Diocese of Sodor, was one of the dioceses of medieval Norway. After the mid-13th-century Treaty of Perth, the diocese was accounted as one of the 13 dioceses of Scotland ...
, though perhaps originally in the diocese of Argyll
The Diocese of Argyll was an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of Scotland in the Middle Ages. The Diocese was led by the Bishop of Argyll, and was based at Lismore.
During the Scottish Reformation, the majority of the Scottish established c ...
. Alan fitz Walter
Alan fitz Walter (1140 – 1204) was hereditary High Steward of Scotland and a crusader.
Life
Alan was the son and heir of Walter fitz Alan, by his spouse Eschina, who was possibly a member of a family from the south of Scotland. From 1178, ...
tried to grant the church to Paisley Abbey in 1204, but this grant does not appear to have been effective and it remained an independent parsonage until the 15th century. In 1463 it became a prebend for the newly created chapter of the diocese of the Isles, but in 1501 it was annexed to the Chapel Royal at Stirling
Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
, becoming in 1509 a prebend for the chancellorship of the Chapel Royal, the latter arrangement surviving beyond the Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterian in its outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Refor ...
.[
]
See also
* List of known bishops of Cenn Garad
References
External links
Canmore - Bute, Kingarth Church site record
Kingarth parish has a prominent and well maintained War Memorial that records the names of all those in the Parish who made the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War, and the Second World War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingarth
Christianity in medieval Scotland
History of Scotland by location
Villages on the Isle of Bute
Parishes in the County of Bute