St Michael's Church, Eriskay
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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 in the United Kingdom, listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key ...
building in
Eriskay Eriskay (), 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 United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Bar ...
,
South Uist South 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 rest of the Hebrides, is one of the ...
, Scotland. Of
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
denomination and built on the initiative of iconic poet and
folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...
Fr.
Allan MacDonald Allan Macdonald (November 21, 1794 White Plains, Westchester County, New York – January 1862) was an American politician from New York. Life He was the son of Dr. Archibald Macdonald (d. 1813), a native of Scotland. Allan Macdonald was Postm ...
(1859-1905), who remains of the most important figures in modern
Scottish Gaelic literature Scottish Gaelic literature refers to literary works composed in the Scottish Gaelic language, which is, like Irish and Manx, a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Gaelic literature was also composed in Gàidhealtachd communities ...
, the church dates from 1903.


Exterior

The church is a plain Gothic
apsidal In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzant ...
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 keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...
led apex
belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...
. It has a cross
finial A finial () 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 dome, spire, tower, roo ...
, 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 (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
screen. The
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...
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'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
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 (; ) 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 Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an impor ...
.


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''


See also

* List of listed buildings in South Uist


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 Hebrides Listed churches in Scotland 19th-century establishments in Scotland