The Isle of Saints. 305 



ground. The ground falls sharply away from the cell on one 

 side, giving access to the opening which is just below the roof. 

 This is lintelled by a large stone, and appears to have been the 

 original entrance. The floor has apparently been considerably 

 filled up, and if excavated the depth of the cell would probably 

 be found much greater than at present. 



A little way south of the chapel the site of the old burying 

 ground can still be traced, and at some distance to the N.E., in 

 a very rocky portion of the island, are the remains of two beehive 

 cells. These have been joined together, and one is now 

 practically demolished. The other is in better preservation, 

 being intact for rather more than a half of its circumference, and 

 the apex of the roof still in position. Internally it is about 15 

 feet in diameter, and about 12 feet in height from the floor to 

 apex. There is no trace of an entrance in the portion still 

 standing, so this must have been in the part which has fallen. 

 The diameter of the other, more ruinated cell, is about 16 feet. 



The grave of Eithne, on the hillside to the south-west, is 

 now marked only by a few rough stones, on one of which a cross 

 has been rudely cut. From it a marvellous panorama is visible 

 of the long line of the Southern Hebrides, from the far-off Paps 

 of Jura to the rugged mass of Scarba, and the lower outlines of 

 the Isles of Lome. 



The advisability of reaching an anchorage in the inner seas 

 before dark, compelled our stay on the island to be short. 

 Reluctantly we turned the launch once more out of the creek into 

 the open, and as we throbbed a steady course across the calm sea 

 towards Scarba, the Isle of Saints grew faint in the evening haze 

 astern. 



It is time some effort was made to preserve what remains are 

 still left to us on the island. Though they have weathered the 

 ravages of storm and time for so many centuries, they have 

 reached a stage at which decay is proceeding rapidly, and the 

 bee-hive cells especially will soon be only a confused heap of 

 stones. 



Rude though these remains are, they are precious as prac- 

 tically our only links with the very dawn of Christianity in the 

 Western Isles, and with those missionaries of old who chose to 

 make their habitation on that lonely isle. In those rough dry 

 stone walls they have left us the memorials of their life and of 

 their faith. 



