Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

394 INSULAR rHURCHES.
whole establishment at Rowdlll was: but from the magni-
tude of the church, still remaining, it M'as probably that
which it is said to have been ; the seat, if not of a Bishop
in our sense of the word, of some Abbot or dignitary with
an extensive pastoral charge. The Garveloch Isles, which
neither Martin nor any one else has noticed, must evi-
dently have been a monastic establishment, and not a
mere cell ; a dependency of some consequence. That
Lamlash was one, we have the authority of Monro. Thus
there seem to have been five establishments of some
importance, and all probably of a mixed monastic na-
ture ; as it is apparent from the history of lona, that the
regular church government was combined with the ju-
risdiction of a secular clergy. If that confusion has not
been very clearly developed, as it regards lona, we are
very unlikely to clear up the history of Rowdill, and of
much more that belongs to this dark question.
In examinirjg the nature of the solitary chapels, gene-
rally found in the remote detached islands, the ruins on
St. Cormac's isle afford an useful light. It is evident,
from the attached cell, that this was an eremitical resi-
dence. The same may be inferred of Fladda Huna, from
the burial place of its attendant monk, well remembered
in Martin's time. That this is, in the same manner, true
of all the rest, is equally probable; as, whether these
were votive chapels, or dependencies on lona, they would
probably not have been left without attendant servitors
or residing hermits. The number of those, in situations
incapable of admitting many other inhabitants, or in
islands so small as probably to have admitted none, seems
to have been nearly thirty. But they may have been
much more numerous, for the reasons already stated.
It remains yet to account for the great number of the
ecclesiastical buildings in the larger islands, amounting
assuredly to more than 200. Of those, there were not