Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 25 on 17/02/2006.

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Hidden away on Harris

In the latest in our series Ian Mitchell visits st Clement's Church, at Rodel, Harris

The turf around the grandest medieval building in the Western Isles is green and springy, but inside the great structure, the stone is grey, cold and very different from, say, the warm sandstone of Iona Cathedral.

Partly this is due to the grey, cold hardness of the rock beneath the turf, but partly it is because the whole structure was built as a symbol of power.

St Clement’s Church stands on the site of an Augustinian monastery founded by King David I. It is named after the first of the 15 Popes Clement. He was third Bishop of Rome and wrote an epistle, which still survives, to the Corinthians in 96 AD.

No trace of the monastery survives today, but the building erected by Alastair Crotach (the ‘Hunchback’) Macleod of Dunvegan and Harris, is intact, despite its chequered history.

Dunvegan Castle in Skye was – and still is – the impressive seat of Macleod of Macleod. St Clement’s Church was intended to be its ecclesiastical counterpart within the Harris possessions of the clan.

The visitor to Rodel today, at the extreme southeast corner of Harris, will wonder why so important a symbol was erected in so quiet a spot. The reason is that when St Clement’s was built Rodel was the opposite of a quiet spot. It was one of the busiest harbours on the Minch.

In the days when birlinns (Hebridean galleys) were the most efficient form of transport in the country, the Minch was the main highway of the western seaboard.

Rodel is one of the snuggest natural harbours anywhere on the w.....

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By Ian Mitchell

Section : Scottish Islands

Page number : 64