St Cathan's Chapel is a ruined chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 on the island of Colonsay

Colonsay

Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 in the Inner Hebrides

Inner Hebrides

The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which enjoy a mild oceanic climate. There are 36 inhabited islands and a further 43 uninhabited Inner Hebrides with an area greater than...

. It was dedicated to Cathan

Saint Cathan

Saint Cathan, also known as Catan, Cattan, etc., was a 6th-century Irish monk revered as a saint in parts of western Scotland. He appears in the Aberdeen Breviary, Walter Bower's Scotichronicon, and the Acta Sanctorum, and a number of placenames in western Scotland are associated with him...

, an obscure saint once venerated across the western Scottish islands. It is located at , in the settlement of Lower Kilchattan.

The ruins, which date to the pre-Reformation

Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...

 period, perhaps to the 14th century, stand within a walled graveyard

Graveyard

A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...

 which is still used. The structure was built on the site of an even earlier chapel, no trace of which survives. A holy well

Holy well

A holy well, or sacred spring, is a small body of water emerging from underground and revered either in a Pagan or Christian context, often both. Holy wells were frequently pagan sacred sites that later became Christianized. The term 'holy well' is commonly employed to refer to any water source of...

, known as Tobar Chatten (Well of Cathan), is located nearby at . An item thought to be the chapel's holy water font

Holy water font

A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is used in Catholic Church and Lutheran churches, as well as some Anglican churches to make the Sign of the Cross using the holy water upon entrance and exit...

 was found and moved Scalasaig

Scalasaig

Scalasaig is the main settlement on the island of Colonsay in the Hebrides of Scotland. It is home to the only port on the isle and thus all tourists must pass through it on the way to any part of the isle. It contains the island's General Store, Post Office, Cafe and Hotel/Bar....

, where it is now used for that purpose in the local parish church.