Cille Bhrea, church and burial ground 60m ENE of Waterloo House

Heritage listing

Date Added 06/10/1970 Last Date Amended 22/02/2017 Type Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard; chapel Local Authority Highland Planning Authority Highland Parish Kiltearn NGR NH 57645 61502 Coordinates 257645, 861502 — The monument is a church and burial ground which served as the parish church of Lemlair until it was united with Kiltearn parish in 1618. The north and west walls of the church are visible as upstanding features. A low bank visible to the northeast of the chapel probably indicates part of the burial ground wall. Excavation shows that buried remains of another rubble bank lie northwest of the chapel. The church stands about 5m above sea level on the north shore of the Cromarty Firth. It is bounded to the southeast by a low, eroding cliff. The church measures 4m wide by at least 10m long within rubble walls 0.6m to 0.8m thick that stand less than 1m high. It is orientated east northeast west southwest. Partial excavation of the interior in 1998 revealed parts of the south wall but indicated that the east wall has been lost to coastal erosion. The bank to the northeast measures about 1.2m wide and 0.2m high and appears to be part of a curvilinear enclosure bounding the church on the landward side. The rubble bank, revealed by excavation to the northwest, overlaid an infilled ditch. Limited excavation at the east end of the church interior demonstrated the existence of gravel deposits up to 1.1m thick containing much human bone. In addition, about 50 burials were excavated within a narrow strip 4m wide along the top of the cliff and many additional graves remain unexcavated to the north. Pottery recovered by excavation indicates activity on the site between 1100 and 1500, while the burials appear to post-date the Reformation. The scheduled area i

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.