Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of ecclesiasticks, subordinate, I
suppose, to Icolmkill.
Sir Allan had a mind to trace the
foundations of the college, but neither I nor Mr. Boswell, who
bends a keener eye on vacancy, were able to perceive them.
Our attention, however, was sufficiently engaged by a venerable
chapel, which stands yet entire, except that the roof is gone. It
is about sixty feet in length, and thirty in breadth. On one side
of the altar is a bas relief of the blessed Virgin, and by it lies
a little bell; which, though cracked, and without a clapper, has
remained there for ages, guarded only by the venerableness of the
place. The ground round the chapel is covered with grave-stones of
Chiefs and ladies; and still continues to be a place of sepulture.
Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolmkill. It was not without
some mournful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious
structures and the monuments of the dead.
On the next day we took a more distinct view of the place, and went
with the boat to see oysters in the bed, out of which the boat-men
forced up as many as were wanted. Even Inch Kenneth has a
subordinate Island, named Sandiland, I suppose in contempt, where
we landed, and found a rock, with a surface of perhaps four acres,
of which one is naked stone, another spread with sand and shells,
some of which I picked up for their glossy beauty, and two covered
with a little earth and grass, on which Sir Allan has a few sheep.
I doubt not but when there was a college at Inch Kenneth, there was
a hermitage upon Sandiland.
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