Maclean of Coll Burial Place

Square-plan burial enclosure with prominent 3-bay N façade flanked by tall cruciform-plan ashlar corner towers with carved crucifixes. Pointed-arch entrance and smaller flanking blind arches linked by hoodmould. Stepped parapets to front and rear elevations; three carved sandstone strip details to side elevations and cruciform detail to rear. Rubble walls with sandstone dressings. Battered base course to towers; moulded parapet eaves course to principal elevation and towers; flat copes to wallheads. Margined quoins. Plain wrought-iron gate lying to interior.

The Maclean Burial Place is a well-proportioned memorial with some fine gothic style detailing, of good quality for its date and largely in its original condition. The enclosure is surprisingly ornate for its building type and remote location. The walls are in rubble with vertical sandstone insert details depicting circles and crosses; the rubble is presumed to have been harled when first constructed. The prominent corner towers, pediment and doorpiece are in finely tooled ashlar.

The building is remotely sited on a promontory to the SW of the Breachacha Castles, the former seat of the Macleans of Coll, to which it is directly related (see separate listings).

The burial place was commissioned by Alexander Maclean, 15th of Coll in 1835 on the death of his wife. He, his wife and a family friend were all interred here. When built there was a stone sarcophagus to the centre and an inscribed marble slab on the wall. Remnants of 8 stone finials survive misplaced to the interior and may have originated from either the wallhead or the sarcophagus.

The surrounds of the plaque with marble shell detail remain to the rear wall and a large marble plaque lies face down within the enclosure.
List description Revised 2008. (Historic Scotland)

25 June 2012: Inspection finds the building has structural cracks to the front and rear walls. The building is fenced off with a warning sign attached. Photographs within the RCAHMS archive, dating from the 1970s show the beginnings of cracks to the front elevation.