From The Neolithic To The Sea: A Journey From The Past To The Present

Chapel Finian

Statistics
Category
County
Coordinates
Grid
Condition
Age
Admission
Chapel
Dumfries and Galloway
54°48'20.8"N 4°40'51.7"W
NX 2778648952
Ruin
900
Free
Map


  • History
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Chapel Finian is a small chapel located on an old raised beach at Corwall Port, situated on the shore of luce bay, between Auchenmalg and Port William, Dumfries and Galloway.

Chapen Finian is named for the Irish saint Finnian, a great scholar and founder who is said to have taught St Columba. He was educated at Whithorn and died about AD 579. Some scholars believe that Finian and Ninian are corruptions of the name Uinniau. Uinniau was a bishop active in the 500s and was probably the real historical figure on whom the cults of Finian and Ninian are based.

The chapel is thought to have been built in the 900 - 1000's as a resting place for pilgrims, travelling from Ireland on their way to Whithorn Priory, although it is possible that it was not the first chapel on this site.

Excavations in 1950 revealed that the chapel consisted of a single rectangular room, about 6.7m by 4.1m, with an entrance through a door in the south wall. Little evidence of the internal arrangements were found, other than traces of wall plaster and a stone bench encased in wood

A drystone wall surrounds the church. Healing properties were probably ascribed to the chapel’s well, which survives within the chapel grounds.