English / Map Form: Kirkapol
Gaelic Form: Circeabol
Location: Tiree, Inner Hebrides
Post Town: ISLE OF TIREE
County: Argyll & Bute
Local Authority: Argyll & Bute
English / Map Form: Kirkapol
Gaelic Form: Circeabol
Language Notes
ON nom. sg. kirkja, f. ‘church’ + boll, 'farmstead'Element Meaning
ON kirkja ~ church; boll ~ farmstead
Sources
| Kirkabol | 1654 Blaeu |
| Kirkapeill | 1674 Retours (Argyle) 82 |
| Kirkapoll | 1804 Langlands |
| N Church-town: MacDonald 1965, 3 |
| Circe-poll MacIntyre 1912 |
| Circeabol: Brownlie |
| [Khjirkhapol]: JM |
| Circeabol: tireeplacenames.org |
| Circeabol: Halliday pers. comm. |
Additional Information
The first OS maps shows two instances of “Chapel (in ruins)”, one is named Cladh Orain whilst the other is unnamed. Another site is called Cladh Kirkapoll. Modern maps no longer have Cladh Orain but teo sites called Chapel (remains of) and one called Cladh Kirkapol. An aerial view can be seen here on Canmore where Cladh Kirkapol is clearly a larger graveyard whilst Cladh Orain a smaller one. The Northern unnamed chapel does not seem to be one.
“Other old ruined chapel on Tiree are Teampuill Oran and Teampuill Chaluim Chille. In the burying ground of the former is to be seen the remains of a very ancient cross” Afoot in the Hebrides, Seton Gordon, Country Life, 1950, 185.
Cf. also Teampall Phàraig for St Patrick’s Chapel. There is a church here still. There is Circeabost in South Uist. The proposed name is on the bilingual signs round the church: Kirkapol Chapels ~ Teampaill Chirceaboil
