Geologists have just announced that the Garvellachs, a group of small islands off Scotland’s west coast, preserve a unique record of the Earth entering an ice age some 720 million years ago.  The Garvellachs are also known for their archaeological sites, which recall an age when early Christian missionaries embarked on hazardous voyages in search of new places to settle and establish monasteries.  We take a short ‘virtual cruise’ around these Isles of the Sea. 

To set foot on the Garvellachs is to walk in the footsteps of saints.  Their name (in Gaelic, garbh-eileach) means ‘rough rock’, and they’re also known as the Isles of the Sea;  they are strung out in a ragged, uneven line in the Firth of Lorn, just off the south-east coast of Mull.

 

 

View of Eileach an Naoimh

According to tradition it was here, in 542 AD, that St Brendan of Clontarf, an Irish missionary-saint, founded a monastery on one of the largest islands:  Eileach an Naoimh or the Isle of the Saints.  (It’s interesting to note that St Columba arrived on Iona two decades later, in 563 AD.)  St Brendan is also known as St Brendan the Navigator:  a ninth-century manuscript tells of his epic voyage in search of the Isle of the Blessed. 

Among the intriguing structures on Eileach an Naoimh are two inter-connecting ‘beehive cells’, perhaps used for prayer or meditation.  Other remains include a roofless stone chapel, which may stand on the site of an earlier one;  and a small souterrain set into a grassy bank, its damp stone-lined interior festooned with mosses and ferns. 

Beehive cells

Chapel

Entrance to souterrain

High on a hillside and overlooking the sea is a gravestone carved with a simple cross:  this is said to mark the grave of Eithne, St Columba’s mother.  In spring the ground is bright with wild flowers, and in autumn a mountain ash tree bends its red-berried branches over the wall of the old graveyard.

St Brendan’s monastery was probably abandoned during the ninth century, when Viking raiders began to ransack holy places up and down the coast.  In later centuries the island was used for grazing, and the roofless walls of farm buildings still survive. 

 

A’ Chuli

On the smaller island of A’ Chuli - ‘the retreat’ - was another chapel.  Here, according to the author Hamish Haswell-Smith, St Brendan is said to have been buried. 

 

Garbh Eileach bothy

North side of Garbh Eileach

Garbh Eileach has the only inhabitable building, which is maintained as a bothy.  Beneath rampant bracken lie the remains of further structures, including a corn-drying kiln.   A burial ground was here too, quite close to the existing bothy, although there is now little trace of it.

 

Dun Chonnuill

On the flat grassy top of Dun Chonnuill are the remains of a fort.  This, in the words of the 14th century chronicler John of Fordun, was once the ‘great castle of Dunquhonle’.  Depending on whose story you believe, it was the stronghold of Conal, an early King of Dalriada, or Conall Cearnach, cousin to Cú Chulainn who was a warrior-hero of Irish legend.

There’s another tale attached to Dun Chonnuill, told by the folklore-collector Fitzroy Maclean.  Two brothers, Lachlan and Hector Maclean, abducted ‘Good John’ Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, and took him to Dun Chonnuill.  They seated him on the Black Stone of Iona and coerced him into giving Lachlan the position of Lord High Admiral and Lieutenant-General of the Isles, as well as his daughter’s hand in marriage. 

A haven for sea birds and red deer, all of the Garvellachs are wild and difficult to access, but they offer a wonderful atmosphere of seclusion and sanctuary for those who are lucky enough to go ashore.

 

Sunset over the Garvellachs

Members of RSGS Collections Team have set out a fascinating display of maps featuring the Garvellachs, which can be enjoyed by visitors to the Fair Maid’s House.   More information about visiting can be found on our website:  https://www.rsgs.org/visitor-centre   We also offer occasional guided tours, which we advertise on our Facebook page.

Reference:

 

Hamish Haswell-Smith, The Scottish Islands (1996)

John Marsden, Sea-Road of the Saints (1995)

Fitzroy Maclean, West Highland Tales (1985)

Canmore database https://canmore.org.uk/

‘Garbh Eileach Formation’ - geological discovery:  https://www.earth.com/news/most-complete-record-of-snowball-earth-found-in-rock-formation/

 

Photos courtesy Colin and Jo Woolf