St Michael's Church (also known as St Michael's of the Sea) is a

Category C listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...

building in

Eriskay Eriskay ( gd, Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is ...

South Uist South Uist ( gd, Uibhist a Deas, ; sco, Sooth Uist) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the ...

, Scotland. Of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

denomination and built on the initiative of iconic poet and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Fr. Allan MacDonald (1859-1905), who remains of the most important figures in modern

Scottish Gaelic literature Scottish Gaelic literature refers to literature composed in the Scottish Gaelic language and in the Gàidhealtachd communities where it is and has been spoken. Scottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages, along with Irish ...

, the church dates from 1903.Eriskay St Michael's R.C. Church
–

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

South Uist, Eriskay, St Michael's Roman Catholic Church
– Canmore

Exterior

The church is a plain

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

church with an adjoining presbytery. It stands on a hill overlooking the village from the north. It is built of coursed square rubble, with contrasting painted margins and long and short dressings. The porch at the south end of the east wall has a pointed doorway and a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led apex belfry. It has a cross

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

, and its roof is made of slate.

Interior

Inside there is a triple-arched

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. Ove ...

screen. The

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

is supported on a boat's bow, with a ship's lamp on a nearby column. The stone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

in the porch may be from an earlier building. The iron bell to the northeast, on an iron frame, is from the SMS ''Derfflinger''. It was recovered from

Scapa Flow Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern end in June 2009 Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and ...

Gallery

File:St Michael's Church, Eriskay 20090608 interior.jpg, Interior File:Inside the Church of St Michael of the Sea - geograph.org.uk - 1357187.jpg, Interior File:Eriskay church - geograph.org.uk - 951147.jpg, Presbytery File:The Bell of St Michael's of the Sea, Haun - geograph.org.uk - 1357173.jpg, Bell, recovered from the SMS ''Derfflinger''

References

External links

Eriskay, St. Michael
– Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Michael's Church Eriskay Churches in the Outer Hebrides Roman Catholic churches in Scotland 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings Category C listed buildings in the Outer Hebridies Listed churches in Scotland 19th-century establishments in Scotland

Exterior

Interior

Gallery

See also

References

External links