Friday, December 3, 2010

ISLE of ARRAN / St Molios Church & Ross Road...

St Molios Church is located in the village of Shiskine, the only significant Arran settlement not sited on the coast. Popularly known as the "Red Church", it was built in 1889 by the architect Sir James Burnet.
The process by which the church came to be dedicated to St.Molios is a complex one. Molios was an Irish monk who, from about 590AD, lived as a hermit on Holy Island in Lamlash Bay, on the east side of Arran. Las or Lais was more usually knows as Molas or Molias or Molio or Molios, and the Gaelic name for Holy Island became Eilean Molaise.
Tradition suggests that when he died, Molios was brought across Arran to a church at Clachan for burial. This is not a name you will find on all modern maps, but the ruined church of Clachan lies next to the Clauchan Water at the head of Clauchan Glen: in what is now Shiskine and less than a mile from St Molios Church.
The Clachan Church whose ruins still stand today was built in 1805, to replace another built in 1708.













These seem only the most recent in a line of churches on the same site, because one of the features of the churchyard was an effigy of a monk carved onto a graveslab popularly believed to mark the grave of St Molios.













































What is believed to be St Molios' grave slab was moved from the churchyard at Clachan and set into a buttress on the west wall of the new church tower, where it is now protected from the elements by a transparent screen.




well, now that we are spiritually refreshed, let's head back home for happy hour and some other kind of spiritual refeshments...why don't we go down to Sliddery and back home via the Ross Road? We have never been on that road....








uh-oh traffic jam..!






it's a haha baaa baaa baad one!






where's a good sheepdog when you need one?






OOPS!








okay...all clear, let's get this stretch limo outta here...
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1 comment:

  1. One could hardly describe this bijou runabout as a gasguzzler...

    ReplyDelete