Cruciform Slab Uncovered
A roughly-hewn cuciform marker stone has been identified during fieldwork undertaken at Port Mhor, Colonsay, by Dr Clare Ellis of Archaeology and Micromorphology. This stone was revealed during the removal of topsoil from a proposed development site, and was undertaken as a condition of planning consent for the development. This condition was attached by Argyll and Bute Council on the advice of the West of Scotland Archaeology Service, due to the proximity of the proposed development to the early medieval chapel site at Kilchattan, and because a number of cists have been found in the adjacent area. These factors suggested that the proposed development site had the potential to produce previously unrecorded archaeological material.
The controlled topsoil strip revealed a spring which had been infilled after the production of the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1881. Within the material used to infill this spring was a roughly hewn cruciform marker stone. This stone, of chlorite schist, measured 1.09m in length and was 0.28m wide. It was roughly tapered at one end and roughly squared at the other, and tool marks were visible at both ends and along one edge of the stone. The tapered end formed a rough cruciform, although one of the arms appeared to have been broken off. Where this and other breaks occured, the stone was darker in colour than its natural and tooled surfaces, which may suggest that the damage occurred when the stone slab was either removed from its original location or when deposited as infill in the spring.
This spring may be the holy well "Tobar Chattan" as described in association with Cille Chatan (Kilchattan - St Cathan's Chapel) (WoSAS Pin 2476) and which was described as being located in the face of the bank opposite Kilchattan Church on the croft of Druimclach. It is therefore possible that the cruciform stone recovered from the backfill once served to mark the location of this holy well. It seems probable that the spring was dug out, a rough drainage channel excavated and then the whole area backfilled with a mixture of raised beach cobbles stones, mixed gravel and peat and any architectural remnants of the holy well as part of late 19th or early 20th century land improvements.
