ST. CORMAC'S ISLES, &C. GN. DESCRIP. 275 



relating to St. Cormac and his eremitical establishment, 

 excepting, that like most of the saints of the Western 

 isles, he was of Irish extraction. 



It has been imagined that the existence of ecclesias- 

 tical remains in islands at present uninhabited, and their 

 abundance in others now destitute of a place of worship, 

 were proofs of the superior population of the Western 

 islands in ancient times. But solitude and austerities 

 were important parts of the devotion of the middle ages, 

 and to these alone we owe such establishments as those 

 of St. Cormac and the Shiant isles ; while the consecration 

 of buildings to sacred uses, was an essential character of 

 the religion of those days. It is probable also that superior 

 knowledge, and the influence of the apostolic character, in 

 the early founders of Christianity in these islands, had given 

 them the possession of much property, which was after- 

 wards wrested from them by freebooters or savage chief- 

 tains who feared neither God nor man. Many of those 

 buildings appear also to have been votive chapels, 

 and it is probable that a large proportion of the twelve 

 churches of Rowdill in Harris were of that nature. This 

 conclusion seems justified by a group still existing in 

 Barra, five being collected within one small enclosure ; 

 some of them being on so small a scale as to be inca- 

 pable of containing above ten or twelve persons. Similar 

 chapels, of which the votive origin is recorded, are 

 known to exist in other situations. Such establishments 

 can therefore only be considered as evidences of a dif- 

 ferent distribution of property, and as proofs of superior 

 devotion, not of superior population, in the ages in which 

 they were erected. 



These islands are now uninhabited, but as they abound 

 in rich pasture, are used for wintering sheep and cattle, 

 being attached to one of the neighbouring farms on 

 the mainland. 



The strata which form the principal island are vertical, 

 or if they have any prevailing dip, it is to the eastward, 



