St Patrick's Chapel

The chapel was built in the 8th or 9th century, so understandably there is not a great amount to see and some parts of the building look very precarious indeed. Constructed from sandstone rubble, the chapel's south and east walls show it was originally a rectangular shape. It is a small structure, and would have been too small to hold a congregation, so preaching would have taken place outside of the church. There is a large rock cut socket in the grounds which would have supported a wooden cross and would have been used during the congregations.

Just south of the chapel lie the fascinating rock-cut tombs and the highlight of the site. There are six graves cut into the rock here, all of which look too small to hold a fully grown person and Andrew did not fancy lying in one to see how big they actually were. Spoilsport! Due to their size they were more likely to hold bones rather than full skeletons or perhaps acted as 'reliquaries' to hold relics of important people. Some of the graves have square holes at the head which would have been used to hold wooden crosses, and when they were in use there would have been stone slabs placed over the graves. Archaeologists beIieve that the graves came before the chapel as they do not align with each other, so the graves could date to before the 8th century. We had a wander round the edge of the chapel which takes you underneath the graves, and you can see their precarious but stunning position right on the edge of the coastline.