Hebridean Archaeological Sites
North Rona (with audio)
Main Article
North Rona is an uninhabited, isolated island 44 miles in the open sea north of the Butt of Lewis, and is seldom visited except by occasional private vessels. But its isolation has preserved the archaeological sites of the island in a relatively undisturbed state, from the early Christian period to the abandonment of Rona by its last community in the 17th century.
The name 'Rona' may have been derived from the Gaelic name for 'seal' or 'rough' island, but it has long also been associated with St Ronan, to whom the tiny oratory is dedicated. This simple, drystone chapel of distinctive 'Celtic' or Irish type appears to date from the 7th or 8th centuries AD, and is perhaps the oldest intact Christian chapel in Britain. It was lovingly maintained by the community of 30 or so people who lived there through the later medieval centuries, but of course was much too small for the worship of more than a few anchorites, and so a more commodious nave was added to its west end some time after about 1200.
Of great interest also are the houses in which the families lived, clustered around the chapel and its walled graveyard, and which consist of a central room surrounded by circular stone-built corbelled cells, forming an organic huddle under their crumbling stone and turf roofs.
Further reading: Rona, the distant island, by Michael Robson (Acair 1991).
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Related Events
Some important events in Hebridean history happened at this location. For more details on these events, see the list below, or go to the Interactive Explorer.
SMR Database Entries
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has an extensive online Sites and Monuments Records database, with in-depth details about the historical, cultural and archaeological sites and monuments in the Hebrides. This site is featured in this database, and the list below gives links to read more. These links will open in a new browser window / tab.
