“----the convent on the lovely isle.”
Inishail, the name of one of the islands in Loch Awe, signifies in
Gaëlic “the lovely isle.” It is not at present so worthy of this
appellation as the neighbouring “Fràoch Elan,” isle of heather, not
having a tree or shrub upon its whole extent. At the period when it
received its name, it might, however, have been better clothed; and
still it has a fair and pleasant aspect: its extent is larger than that
of any other island in the lake, and it is covered with a green turf,
which, in spring, sends forth an abundant growth of brackens.
There formerly existed here a convent of Cistercian nuns; of whom it is
said, that they were “memorable for the sanctity of their lives and the
purity of their manners: at the Reformation, when the innocent were
involved with the guilty in the sufferings of the times, their house was
supprest, and the temporalities granted to Hay, the abbot of Inchaffrey,
who, abjuring his former tenets of religion, embraced the cause of the
reformers.”[226] Public worship was performed in the chapel of the
convent till the year 1736: but a more commodious building having been
erected on the south side of the lake, it has since been entirely
forsaken; nothing now remains of its ruin but a small part of the shell,
of which only a few feet are standing above the foundation. Of the
remaining buildings of the order there exists no trace, except in some
loose heaps of stones, and an almost obliterated mound, which marks the
foundation of the outer wall. But the veneration that renders sacred to
a Highlander the tombs of his ancestors, has yet preserved to the
burying-ground its ancient sanctity. It is still used as a place of
interment, and the dead are often brought from a distance to rest there
among their kindred.
In older times the isle was the principal burying-place of many of the
most considerable neighbouring families: among the tombstones are many
shaped in the ancient form, like the lid of a coffin, and ornamented
with carvings of fret-work, running figures, flowers, and the forms of
warriors and two-handed swords. They are universally destitute of the
trace of an inscription.
Among the chief families buried in Inishail were the Mac Nauchtans of
Fràoch Elan, and the Campbells of Inbherau. Mr. Allan could not discover
the spot appropriated to the former, nor any evidence of the gravestones
which must have covered their tombs. The place of the Campbells,
however, is yet pointed out. It lies on the south side of the chapel,
and its site is marked by a large flat stone, ornamented with the arms
of the family in high relief. The shield is supported by two warriors,
and surmounted by a diadem, the signification and exact form of which it
is difficult to decide; but the style of the carving and the costume of
the figures do not appear to be later than the middle of the fifteenth
century.
On the top of the distant hill over which the road from Inverara
descends to Cladich there formerly stood a stone cross, erected on the
spot where Inishail first became visible to the traveller. These crosses
were general at such stations in monastic times, and upon arriving at
their foot the pilgrims knelt and performed their reverence to the
saint, whose order they were approaching. From this ceremony, the spot
on the hill above-mentioned was and is yet called “the cross of
bending.”