Keeill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
keeill (variations - keill) is a Manx Gaelic word for a church or chapel.
[edit] History and siting
Archaeologically, it is specifically used for a specific type of tiny simple church or chapel, mainly found on the island and built as preaching and ministry centres by early Christian missionaries such as St Patrick, who began to arrive on the Isle of Man around 500 AD.
The earliest - in turf and vegetation - have all been lost, and only later ones (mostly in use between the 8th and 12th centuries) survive. These survivors are in unhewn or roughly worked stones, slabs and rubble, supplemented with supporting structures in earth and turf, and in a few later cases used shell mortar and cement. Keeills fell out of their original use between the Viking invasion of the Isle and their conversion to Christianity.
Keeills were usually built on a natural or artificial mound, often the site of earlier burials or monuments (eg Bronze-Age barrow mounds) and/or near a spring or holy well (a chibbyr). Later cemeteries (pagan and Christian) also centred on keeills, including the Isle's first Christian memorial stones. They can also include an enclosure around the structure itself, various phases of construction from different periods and even Viking ship burials.
[edit] Number
At least 174 keeills have been recorded on the Isle, out of probably over 200, though only 35 can be easily identified today. Most of these have either been lost (eg when a later medieval church such as Kirk Maughold and Kirk Christ Malew was built on top of or in place of one), or destroyed when excavated by Victorian and Edwardian antiquarians looking for ground plans and treasure rather than stratigraphy and finds.
[edit] Size and layout
We do know that while different keeills were broadly similar in their layout but considerably varying in size.
Carl J S Markstander, a Norwegian professor who carried out what remains the most extensive survey of keeills on the Isle of Man in the 1930s, described this variation:
- 'The Ballachrink keeill in Marown measures only 10 feet × 6 feet inside. Otherwise they may attain 23 feet × 13 feet (Keeill Vian, Lonan), even 57 feet × 18 feet (St Patrick's Chapel, Patrick's Isle), and 75 feet × 24 feet (St. Trinian's, Marown). The walls vary in thickness from 2 feet 4 inches to 4 feet 8 inches and are, on the outside, protected by an embankment of earth and stones, in height 2-5 feet, in depth 4-10 feet.'
- ...'The shape is rectangular with no division between nave and chancel. The door, which is narrow and tapering towards the top, is usually situated in the western gable. The window – as a rule only one – is built at a height of 2-3 feet above the floor. The altar is invariably placed against the eastern wall, attaining a height of about 2 feet.'
[edit] Time Team
The keeill excavated in 2007 by Time Team fitted into Markstander's general pattern, in terms of walls, rectangular shape, lack of identifiable internal divisions, and having a single narrow entrance and an eastern altar.
