St Moluag's Cathedral, Lismore
| St Moluag's Cathedral | |
|
Argyllshire | |
|---|---|
| Status: | parish church |
 St Moluogs Cathedral | |
| Church of Scotland | |
| Presbytery of Argyll | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NM861435 |
| Location: | 56°32’5"N, 5°28’49"W |
| History | |
| Information | |
St Moluag's Cathedral is on the island of Lismore, in the Firth of Lorne, just off the coast of Oban, in Argyllshire. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, the church is not technically a cathedral, in spite of its name. It was a cathedral before the abolition of the office of bishop in the Kirk 1690.
History
Saint Moluag (Old Irish Mo-Luóc) (d. 592), founded a monastery on the island. It was a major centre of Christianity in Scotland, and the seat of the later mediæval bishopric of Argyll or the Isles. To modern eyes it seems an isolated location for such a centre, but in an era when the fastest and most reliable transport was by water, Lismore was ideally situated.[1]
The Diocese of Argyll was Scotland's most impoverished diocese, and the fourteenth century Cathedral was very modest in scale.[2] Only the choir survives, in greatly altered form, the nave and western tower having been reduced to their foundations. The chief surviving mediæval features are three doorways, one blocked, another originally the entrance through the pulpitum, a piscina and the triple-arched sedilia. Several late mediæval grave slabs are preserved in the church or adjoining graveyard.[3]
Parish
The building is in use as the parish church of Lismore, a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is also linked with Appin Parish Church on the mainland. The minister is Rev Roderick D. M. Campbell, formerly of St Andrew's and St George's Church in Edinburgh; the previous minister the Reverend John A. H. Murdoch moved to Largo and Newburn which is linked with Largo St David's, Fife, in 2006.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Moluag's Cathedral, Lismore) |
References
- ↑ History from Isle of Lismore retrieved 24 May 2013
- ↑ History from Scottish Episcopal Church Diocese of Argyll and The Isles retrieved 24 May 2013
- ↑ CANMORE (RCAHMS) record of St Moluags Cathedral
- ↑ Lismore's People from Isle of Lismore retrieved 24 May 2013