Building record MAB7563 - MCGREGOR'S CHAPEL, DALFAD

Remains of Roman Catholic chapel and burial ground of which little is known.

Remains of Roman Catholic chapel and burial ground of which little is known. It is thought that the chapel was built probably by the McGregors of Dalfad during the early to mid 18th century, although the site may indeed be older as Catholic recusancy was sustained in the Glengairn and Upper Desside from the 1630s, with several Jesuit missions active from the 1670s. It has been suggested that the chapel may never have been completed, building works ceasing after the death of the McGregor Laird of Dalfad and eighteen of his kinsmen at Culloden in 1746. The focus of Catholic worship in the area then moved to the nearby chapel at Clashenruich. The remains of the chapel consist of a rubble-built rectangular structure, 14.5m by 5m with walls 1m thick and 1m high, oriented east to west. At the east end of the chapel there is a crudely carved cross slab and a grave marker and there are three other grave slabs propped up against the north wall of the chapel. The chapel sits within a sub-rectangular burial ground defined by a drystone wall. No entrance visible to the rectangular enclosure.

ORDNANCE SURVEY, 1871, Ordnance Name Book, No19(1868) 48 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1360.

JERVISE, A, 1879, EPITAPHS & INSCRIPTIONS,VOL 2, No2,167 (Bibliographic reference). SAB889.

Record last edited

May 11 2021 11:23AM