Kilchoman

Kilchoman Cross 20120412

Kilchoman is a small settlement and large parish on the Scottish island of Islay, within the unitary council of Argyll and Bute.

Settlement

Ruined church, Kilchoman - geograph.org.uk - 1420041

The settlement of Kilchoman consists of a small number of houses gather around the 19th century church, a short way above the each and dunes of Machir Bay. The site is ancient, dating back to the early Christianisation of the Argyll seaboard.^[1] The church ceased use as a place of worship in 1977.^[2] The burial ground enclosing the church contains many medieval and renaissance sculptures, and notable Cross, the Kilchoman Cross, dating from the 14th or 15th century. The sculptor of the cross belonged to the Iona School.^[3]

Close to the settlement is another cemetery, the Kilchoman Military Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This contains the remains of victims of the sinking of HMS Otranto in 1918.

A short distance east is Kilchoman Distillery.

Choughs breed in the area of farmland around the settlement, and the south shores of Loch Gorm,^[4] representing around 10% of the population of this vulnerable bird in the British Isles.^[5]

Parish of Kilchoman

The parish covers the west part of Islay, covering the Rhinns of Islay, and the area around and north of Loch Gorm, and bounded to the east by Loch Gruinart and Loch Indaal totalling around 100 square miles (250 km²).^[6] It thus includes the settlements of Port Charlotte, Bruichladdich, Ardnave and Portnahaven.

See also

• List of listed buildings in Kilchoman, Argyll and Bute

Bibliography

• Walker, Frank Arneil (2000). Argyll & Bute. Buildings of Scotland. Penguin. pp. 544–545. ISBN 978-0300096705.
• The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Renfrew, Argyle. W. Blackwood and Sons. 1845. pp. 644–659.
• Newton, Norman (1988). Islay. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. pp. 65–67. ISBN 9780715389966.

External links

• Kilchoman Military Cemetery at CWGC
• Kilchoman Military Cemetery at Scottish Wargraves
• HMS Otranton and Tuscania Memorials
• Carved Stones of Kilchoman Parish. An 1885 account
• Kilchoman at Islay History Blog

References

1. Walker (2000)
2. Walker (2000)
3. Walker (2000)
4. #D&C_Island
5. JNCC. "Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax (breeding)" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-01-20.
6. New Statistical Account ibid.

Coordinates: 55°46′55″N 6°26′30″W / 55.7819°N 6.4417°W