See also:
NG44SE0003 Chapel & Kelp kilns
J Aitken : 10/12/02
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NG44SE 3 4847 4222.

(NG 4847 4222) Chapel (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

In the inner bay of Portree, formerly called Loch Columkille, is a small island still called Eilean Columkille. It is nearly covered with stones, which were spread upon it for the drying of sea-wrack, and kilns for burning kelp, so that the soil is nearly hidden. However, the traces of graves, and of a small building standing E-W amy be discerned; and some old people remember one or two interments on the islet (Adamnan 1857). The building, a church bearing the name of St. Columba, is a simple oblong chamber, 26ft long by 16ft wide, the walls being roughly 2ft 7ins at the sides and 3ft 6ins at the gable ends (RCAHMS 1928).
Adamnan 1857; RCAHMS 1928.

St. Columba's Chapel exists as described by RCAHMS, and it has in, addition, a doorway 1.5m wide in the W end of the N Wall. The walls are reduced to turf covered first and second courses of irregular shaped boulders with no obvious trace of mortar. Condition: poor.
Visited by OS (C F W) 20 April 1961.

Excavation of this chapel demonstrated a wall of earth and stone construction (1m in thickness) enclosing an area 6m E-W by 3.5m N-S. An entrance 1.2m in width lay near the W end of the N wall, and a platform base for the altar at the E end. Finds deposited with Skye and Lochalsh Museums Service (Acc No: 1988-4).
R Miket 1988.

Reeves, W (ed), 1857, Vita Sancti Columbae: auctore Adamnan Monasterii Hiensis Abbate (The Life of St Columba, founder of Hy), 139 (Text/Publication/Volume). SHG1874.

RCAHMS, 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, 177, No. 571 (Text/Report). SHG2656.

Miket, R, 1988, 'St Columba's chapel (Portree parish)', Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1988, p.16, 16 (Text/Publication/Article). SHG1536.