Oronsay Priory, interior, from the south west. View of grave-slabs lined up along wall.

Description Oronsay Priory, interior, from the south west. View of grave-slabs lined up along wall.

Date 30/6/1895

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 740727

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of AG 1722

Scope and Content Grave-slabs, North Wall of Priory Church, Oronsay Priory, Argyll & Bute The ruins of Oronsay Priory stand at the west end of the small island of Oronsay, accessible by foot from its larger neighbour, Colonsay, at low tide. The priory was founded by John I, Lord of the Isles, between 1325 and 1353 as an Augustinian community, but little is known about its subsequent history. The building seems to have progressed intermittently through the 14th and 15th centuries, but by the early 17th century it was in a ruinous condition. The Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed the priory and its funerary monuments and crosses c.1897. These late medieval grave-slabs date from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Most have the familiar tapered shape and measure approximately 2m in length by 0.5m in width, although some are half the normal size and presumably covered the graves of children. They are bordered by mouldings and decorated with carvings of plant scrolls and intertwined plant stems. Some have galleys with billowing sails (left) and others have a sword (fourth from right), presumably an accurate representation of the weapon of the deceased. The central slab bears two small cloaked figures, probably Augustinian canons. The priory has an important collection of over 30 memorial stones by sculptor-masons trained at Iona, Loch Sween and Oronsay. Their principal characteristics are the profusion and variety of decoration, dominated by foliage, but including figures, both human and divine, animals, both real and mythical, ships, tools, swords and other illustrations drawn from contemporary life. The carvings provide representations of the costume worn by the inhabitants of the region at the time, they show the various weapons carried, they illustrate the tools and objects in daily use, and, in the inscriptions, give the names of local people of some importance. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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