The Parishes of Kintyre with early ecclesiastical sites

The ecclesiastical sites are selected either because they are known as such or because they have kil-names. Some, like the Kilmichaels in Saddell and Carradale, have no known burial-grounds – but presumably once had. The column labelled ‘No’ gives the total number of such sites per parish, the column labelled ‘m’ gives their total value in merklands. The figures in the 1678 rental are not always consistent between the various pages so the totals given above are my summations.

The situation on the east coast of Kintyre must have been distorted by the foundation of Saddell Abbey in the second half of the twelfth century. Prior to this one would expect there to have been a parish based on Carradale or Saddell (or both). (In each glen there is a Kilmichael – a dedication which may have replaced any to earlier ‘Celtic’ saints). The parish structure was further complicated by the fact that Iona owned 9m of Upper Glencarradale whilst Ardchattan Priory owned Sunadale and Cour which are just to the north. Skipness was linked to Kilcalmonell in the thirteenth century but in earlier years I think it probably operated as a separate parish with a church at Skipness or Claonaig.

RHP 4300 is a map by George Langlands dated December 1777 which gives detailed valuations for the ‘united Parishes of Killean & Kilchinzie’. It stretches from Balure in the north to Kilmaho in the south and included not just the parishes of Killean and Kilchenzie but perhaps Killarow and possibly other earlier parishes based on places such as Killmaluag, Killegruer or Killocraw which we have no knowledge of. Langlands marks a break at Barr and his list then has the sub-heading ‘Centre of the Parish’ – although it continues uninterruptedly to Killmaho. I have wondered if his demarcation is a shadow of some former parish boundary. The first section of his list totals 69m. The second part totals 77m. However, if we overlay his list with a division based on the 1678 rental then the southernmost farm of Killean parish becomes Putichantuy and the northernmost farm in Kilchenzie parish is Killocraw. This would give totals of  103m for Killean and 43m for Kilchenzie. (In either case the total is 146m).

Conclusions

It has to be said that there is no very obvious correlation between parish values and the incidence of early church sites. ‘Ounceland chapels’ would require one church site every 80m. In fact the number of early church sites is far higher than this – about one every 13½m (or 3-4d). It is quite possible that many of these early sites fell out of use and became redundant but we have no way of knowing when this happened or in what circumstances. There is no obvious correlation across and between the parishes although there seem to have been proportionately more ecclesiastical sites in South Kintyre.

Is there any correlation if we look at these early church sites against their land-assessment valuations? In other words do the farms beginning with kil- have values that suggest any sort of pattern? Again the answer is broadly negative. All we can sense is that major or ‘mother’ churches were sometimes worth 1d or 4m while subsidiary chapels might be ½d or 2m. There is nothing here that allows us to fix any sort of underlying structure of a regular number of ritual sites per ounceland or group of davachs.

However it is noticeable that several of the parishes are of comparable size. The four parishes in South Kintyre range betweeen 48 and 62m (approximately 12 to 16 davachs). Kilmichael, Kilchousland and Saddell were also all within this range while Skeirchenzie was a notional 40m (half an ounceland or 10 davachs). The situation in the northern half of North Kintyre is much more difficult to unravel.

On the assumption that the above table shows what was once church property then it appears that the church (disregarding lands held by Iona, Whithorn, Paisley, Ardchattan or Saddell) held about one-tenth of Kintyre. On this basis Alexander Macdonald’s claim in 1296 that the bishop of Argyll then held 60m may not have been very wide of the mark.