Township: Kirkapol

Map Reference: Kirkapol 13

Name Type: graveyard

Meaning: The small burial ground; or the Cornaig burial ground

Other Forms: An Cladh Beag - EMcK, DMcI, Angus MacLean, Scarinish, 3/2010.

Cladh Beag Chornaig - DMcI, Angus MacLean, Scarinish, 3/2010.

Cladh Orain - OSNB OS1/2/28/130, meaning "Oran's burying place." It is described as " a small graveyard in which are the ruins of an old chapel." This is wrong - JH

Related Places:

Information:Of the 66 legible major gravestones, 55 (83%) have a MacLean husband or wife; 29 (44%) come from Cornaigmore or Cornaigbeg (fairly evenly split). The earliest marked gravestone is from 1495, relating to the Prior of Iona. The Rev Neil MacLean, Rev Hector Cameron and Rev John Gregorson Campbell are all buried here. (Tiree Gravestones website) This appears to have been a high status burial ground surrounding what was the medieval parish church for the whole island from the 13th to the 15th century. It then became the parish church for the parish of Kirkapol, which extended from Caolas to Balevullin. In 1618, the to parishes were re-united and the parish church moved to Soroby. The original connection with the MacLeans and Cornaig is not clear.
There are a lot of people from Cornaig buried there - DMcI.

Almost exclusively MacLeans are buried here and the right to buried there was "defended with fists" until the 19th century. The only non- MacLean buried there are 'The Currier' from Brock, whose mother was possibly a MacLean, and Rev John Gregorson Campbell who was held in very high esteem - HMcP.


There are two cemetries in Kirkapol, Cladh Odhrain ('Churchyard of Oran', after Oran of Iona) and the Cladh Beag ('Small Churchyard'). There is no trace of the chapel in Cladh Odhrain, but the walls of the chapel in Cladh Beag are still in a reasonable state of preservation. On a knoll east of the Cladh Beag stands the remains of a more ancient chapel. Bailtean is Ath-Ghairmean, Niall M Brownlie, Argyll Publishing, 1995, p116.

Local Form:

Languages : Gaelic

Informants: Elsie MacKinnon, Kirkapol, 8/1994

Informant 2: Donald MacIntyre, Gott, 12/1995

Informant 3: Hector MacPhail, Ruaig, 4/1996