"My sanctuary"--Kildalton Cross

In 1921, a shepherd on Ardtalla Estate on northeast Islay challenged a man walking its grounds.  It turned out the man was a former Imperial German U-Boat commander, there on a nostalgic visit to "his sanctuary". 

Ordinance Survey map  Glas Uig relative to Kildalton Chapel; Port an Cille highlighted.

Glas Uig is an almost imperceptible cove, hidden in the rock cliffs and offshore rock "skerries" in a remote part of northeast Islay, a place that is almost exclusively inhabited by sheep.  In a coast of rocks, Glas Uig itself has a sandy bottom--ideal for bedding down a U-Boat in protected shallows.

Seaward, passing shipping would need to be dangerously close to the skerries and...at a perpendicular angle to its mouth...in order to peer into Glas Uig.  A very limited aperture indeed.

Landward, its two headlands are steep, rocky.  To look down into Glas Uig would require a deliberate climb...an ideal spot to post sentries.  Its beach approach inland between the heads is a boggy bottom...normally avoided by those afoot.  In short, Glas Uig worked well as a hideout.

(An aside:  Generally, all hideouts have certain commonalities.  In Idaho Territory, for example, the old term for a gang's hideout was "shebang".  A few miles south of our place is Shebang Creek...a somewhat elevated drainage which overlooks the Camas Prairie and yet is protected by steeper ground behind it (Cottonwood Butte) and the breaks above the Snake River.  Notorious highwaymen (e.g. Plummer's gang) would lay in wait for gold shipments transported out of the Florence goldfields on mule or horseback bound for Lewiston/Walla Walla.)

Shebang Creek (dark blue); 21 miles in length; running from 4,226 to 2,959 feet in elevation at confluence with Cottonwood Creek

So for its purposes, to hide his U-Boat in a protected slip while its batteries recharged, to collect fresh water and rest, Glas Uig worked well for the German captain.  During the First World War, his submariners even rustled sheep from Ardtalla Estate to provision their U-Boat larders with fresh meat.  Thus, the German U-Boat commander who was challenged at Ardtalla in 1921 after the War was familiar with the surrounding northeast Islay terrain. 

Ardtalla Estate (view north); the Paps of Jura in background; Aros Bay just visible to right

The U-Boat commander's story was relayed by Sir John MacTaggart of Ardtalla Estate, and reported 1970s by Rosemary Hamilton ("Hidden Harbour," Scottish Field magazine)...otherwise it would have been lost to history.  Of interest in the account is the German captain's use of his "sanctuary" to describe the terrain over which he walked.

Kildalton Church, long a ruin, is little more than a mile from the Glas Uig U-Boat hideout, and the current boundary of Ardtalla Estate.

At Kildalton, precious beyond measure, stands what is probably the finest early Christian Celtic Ring Crosses in all of Britain...and therefore in the world.  21 feet in height, over 4 feet in span and adorned with elaborate carved reliefs of mythic animals and various scenes taken from the Bible...such as the story of Cain and Able.  [Most were illiterate in this day; thus the people would best respond to imagery rather than text.]

March 24, 2017  Kildalton Cross, Islay

A matter of good fortune perhaps, the Kildalton Cross is carved from a feldspar rich epidiorite, locally matched to that found at Port na Cille (south of Glas Uig; see map) about a mile east of Kildalton.  Epidiorite is a metamorphic igneous rock...hard, heavier the granite and weather resistant.

Kildalton's Cross is related to the "complex" of Isle of Iona High Crosses.  Indeed, St. Martin's Cross at Iona, which has stood on Iona in its same location for nearly 1,300 years, is also carved from epidiorite.  In its style however, Kildalton's Cross closely resembles St. John's Cross also at Iona.  So closely, the general consensus is that the Kildalton Cross and St. John's Cross on Iona were created by the same sculptor.  St. John's Cross is broken and incomplete; and now housed out of the elements in Iona Museum (formerly the monastery's old infirmary.)

Kildalton Chapel was dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, and this perhaps strengthens a link between it and St. John's Cross at Iona.  From their similarities, the Kildalton Cross is estimated to date from 750-790 A.D.

March 24, 2017 Interior of Kildalton Chapel ruin.

Kildalton Chapel was renovated successively over the centuries.  It is now a ruin, open to the sky.

Medieval grave slab, Kildalton Chapel

The existing ruins are principally Medieval (albeit with extensive repairs). The remains of the existing chapel date to about 1150-1250 A.D.

The burial ground, however, is estimated to date to 800 A.D.--which implies an earlier structure at the site prior to the Medieval building.  Further, given the Kildalton Cross, in its time, the chapel at Kildalton would likely have been of some prominence.

An effigy slab of a Medieval knight in full armor is placed upright inside the chapel's interior wall.  This slab, originally designed to be a recumbent grave stone, is typical for West Highland designs, dating from the 1200s to the 1400s. 

Over the knight's left shoulder ("heart side") can be seen a hovering figure.  This is thought to imply that knight's wife is buried alongside.

Kildalton Chapel is thought to have been used until the 1730s, when a new parish church replaced it.  At the time of the German U-Boat story, Kildalton would have been a ruin.

Shortly after the German U-Boat commander's nostalgic visit after World War One, Kildalton Chapel ruin was extensively repaired in 1925.

And the ruins were again repaired as late as the mid 1970s.

March 24, 2017  The Thief's Cross

One final note, immediately north of Kildalton Chapel stands a cross locally known as the "Thief's Cross".  Lore has it that this cross was placed for a thief, and that explains why it is set at a distance from the Kildalton burial ground...which was consecrated.

But the tale has its detractors who point out that it is not likely anyone would incur the expense to erect such a cross (c.1200 A.D.) for a thief.

Two alternative suggestions have been proffered.  (1) the Thief's Cross was erected by a local lord for a commemoration, or (2) the Thief's Cross marked the original boundary of the chapel's hallowed ground...in other words the official sanctuary.

If the later is true, and many are inclined to accept that view, it would be altogether fitting that the German U-Boat commander and sheep poacher considered this "his sanctuary".

The identity of the German U-Boat captain is unknown.  And now, it is perhaps forever unknowable.  A last note, speculative in its nature.

After the Great War ended, the American Red Cross constructed the American Monument on the Mull of Oa, Islay to honor Americans lost when the S.S. Tuscania was torpedoed and sunk by German UB-77, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Meyer on February 5, 1918.

A Red Cross publication, dated October 1920, mentions they were in the process of building the American Monument on Islay...but it was not completed at the time of publication In October.  The American Monument was therefore likely completed in early 1921...which was same year the unknown German U-Boat commander was challenged at Ardtalla, walking near "his sanctuary" and the U-Boat hideout at Glas Uig...with an obvious heavy heart.