The Medieval weekend was in celebration of the Preservation and Display of the 14/15th Century Lismore Graveslabs, a long and important project, a joint venture between the Comann Eachdraidh and the church led by Dr Robert Hay.
Medieval Graveslab opening August 2015 Robert Hay
Here you see Robert Hay and the stones in position on 9 August 2015 but this ambitious project began on Sunday 18 January 2015, when a group of 23 islanders formally approved the plans for the display of the conserved stones next to the war memorial. There followed months of work by many people starting with Clare Ellis of Argyll Archaeology (Campbeltown) who recorded the positions of the stones and supervised the lifting, making sure that any archaeological features were fully recorded. It was already known that the stones had been moved around in the past and that it was unlikely that there would be any traces of the original burials.
Stonemason Colin Rowan and his team then began the work of lifting and transporting the stones to the school house at Baligarve, kindly made available by the Crossan family, for the drying and conservation work.
Medieval Graveslab project 3 – 13.02.15 Colin Rowan and Clare Ellis lifting the stones
The stones at Baligarve
Meanwhile Clare and Bob Hay marked out the shelter site, to the right of the war memorial, for Historic Scotland. The 6m x 2m site was later stripped of turf and checked for archaeology by Clare once Historic Scotland has given the go ahead. The graveslabs were then dried for round 2 months before they are carefully cleaned to remove lichen and moss, stabilized to prevent further deterioration of the stone, repaired (where necessary) and mounted in preparation for transfer to the shelter.
The Argyll oak shelter seen above was made off site and the research done for the interpretation boards. The full story of the graveslabs can be seen and read on this site.
Despite the weather the inauguration was a fitting celebration of this great achievement and, together with Elder Duncan MacGregor, David Caldwell, President of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, cut the symbolic tape.
Robert Hay explained that there was still work to be done on the oak shelter and Elder Mary MacDougall thanked all who had participated and in particular the immense amount of work done by Bob Hay.
Mary MacDougall
The inauguration August 2015
Interpretation board
Interpretation Board
Interpretation Board
The Comann Eachdraidh Lios Mòr wish to thanks the following:
Our Sponsors
Historic Scotland (John Raven and Stephen Gordon)
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Lismore Project Group
Mary MacDougall
Barbara McDougall
Donnie MacCormick
John Livingstone
Colin Rowan and his team of stonemasons at Rowanstoneworks
Clare Ellis, Argyll Archaeology
Jim MacCormick and John Carmichael who cast the foundation
Alex Gourlay who designed the shelter
Mike Rayworth for the Argyll green oak from Loch Awe, for construction of the shelter, and structural engineering
Dan Fox and Duncan Ferguson for help in the construction
Lynn Vesco for the interpretation boards
Beathag Mhoireasdan for Gaelic translations
David Caldwell for heritage advice throughout the project
