Eaglais na h-Aoidhe - The Eye Church - St Columba's Uidh

St Columba’s Church is a 14th Century ruin sitting within its own Cemetery and located on a sandy isthmus near the main town of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. Commonly known as St Columba’s (Uidh) - Uidh being the Gaelic for isthmus - the Church is also referred to as the Eye Church or its Gaelic equivalent, Eaglais na h-Aoidhe.

St Columba's Churchyard

St Columba’s (Uidh), is important, not only for its Church, but for its internationally significant Cemetery. Two intricately carved stone grave slabs adorn the internal wall of the Church, lifted from the ground to reduce the effects of weathering. One slab, depicting a warrior in mail armour wearing a pommelled sword and carrying a spear commemorates Roderick Macleod VII, the last of the Macleod Chiefs, who died in 1498 and is buried below the Church floor. On the opposite wall is another grave slab in a Celtic design with interwoven patterns of foliage and animals. The Latin inscription around the edge has long since become illegible but once read, “Here lies Margaret, daughter of Roderick Macleod of Lewis, widow of Lachlan MacKinnon, died 1503”. As many as nineteen  Macleod Chiefs may be buried in Uidh. William Mackenzie, the 5th Earl of Seaforth, once lay below the pavement to the north of the Church but it is feared that his remains have now been lost to the sea. John Morrison, a lieutenant with Nelson at the Battle of Cape Trafalgar (1805), died in 1827 at the age of 49 and is buried within the Church.

Decline Sets In

Latterly, St Columba’s (Uidh) was used as an Episcopalian place of worship until 1829 when a fiercely evangelical brand of Scottish Presbyterianism swept across the island and a new Thomas Telford designed Church was built in nearby Knock. In Rev John Cameron’s ‘New Statistical Account for Scotland’ of 1833, he states, “the chapel at Ui has strong walls still standing. The south-west end of it is roofed and slated; the minister of Stornoway used to preach there, once in six weeks, before the Government Church was erected”. Episcopal worship then moved to St Peter’s Episcopal Church in Stornoway while the name, St Columba’s, was assumed by a new Church of Scotland built in 1794 in the town. St Columba’s, Uidh, became a forgotten place.

The Columba Connection

Columba or Columcille lived during the 6th Century AD and was the most significant of the Celtic saints in Scotland. Native to Ireland, Columba is said to have come to the west of Scotland following a confrontation between Abbot Finian of Clonard and himself. Tradition has it that Finian was the proud owner of a psalter (the Book of Psalms from Holy Scripture) which he lent to Columba. Columba was a dedicated scholar, and made a copy of the Psalter. When this was discovered, he was brought before the local King, Diarmit. Diarmit made his famous judgement – to every cow her calf; to every book its copy - pronouncing Columba guilty in what was, in effect, the first case of copyright infringement. Columba refused to accept the judgement, and the situation escalated dangerously, culminating in a battle with Diarmit, a battle which Columba’s men won but not before 3,000 lives were lost.

Columba sailed for Scotland and swore to set up a monastery as soon as he was out of sight of his native Ireland, eventually settling on the island of Iona and established the Iona Community. History stresses Columba’s role in the conversion of Scotland, although Christianity had already been introduced through the preaching of St Ninian long before Columba entered the stage, and later developed, especially in the Outer Hebrides, by Maelrubha of Applecross. Columba’s monastery at Iona, however, became a great centre of learning and artistic achievement, whose religious and political significance spread far beyond the shores of Scotland.