Kilvickeon

Kilvickeon Church and Graveyard

This ruined chapel on the Ross of Mull, (NM 412196), dates from the 13th century and is a prime example of early church building in Scotland.
Reputed to have been built on an pre-existing Christian site, Kilvickeon translates from the native Gaelic as "Church of the son of Eoghan" - Eoghan was a nephew of St Columba. With Iona, the cradle of Christianity, so near at hand many of the missionaries would have passed through the area as they went off on their travels.

Kilvickeon was linked or united with many other local parishes in its history, ending up as the Parish Church of Kilvickeon with Kilninian which served the whole Ross of Mull, before its final demise in 1804 when the present Parish Church in Bunessan was built. We know from the First Statistical Account (c 1792) that the original building had been in dire straits for some time.

Today, the ruin stands in the midst of its burial ground, in a bleak and windswept part of the island, but with an atmosphere all of its own.

Back to: History of Bunessan