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St Moluag's Church, Kilmaluag Bay is a ruined ecclesiastical building located on the northern coast of Inverness-shire, Scotland. The site sits upon Middle Jurassic bedrock comprising mudstone, sandstone and limestone laid down approximately 170 million years ago, when this region lay beneath a shallow tropical sea. The church is protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5569, recognising its significance as a place of Christian worship and settlement.
The monument takes its name from St Moluag, an early medieval saint venerated in the Scottish Highlands, and its location beside Kilmaluag Bay suggests it occupied a position of strategic and spiritual importance within the local community. The surviving fabric reflects the building traditions of the medieval period, when small stone churches such as this served as focal points for worship and pastoral care across the Highlands. The exposed bedrock geology visible in the coastal landscape would have provided stone for both the church's construction and the surrounding settlements.
The ruined structure remains an important record of medieval Christian practice in this remote coastal environment. Its preservation helps illuminate patterns of early Church settlement and the enduring spiritual geography of the Highlands, where saints' names and their associated places continue to anchor local identity and historical memory.
St Moluag's Church,Kilmaluag Bay is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5569. View the official record →
St Moluag's Church, Kilmaluag Bay is a ruined ecclesiastical building located on the northern coast of Inverness-shire, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5569.
St Moluag's Church,Kilmaluag Bay is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM5569.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Duntulm Castle (2.6 km), Druim nan Slochd, dun 250m NNW of Flodigarry Hotel (3.9 km), Dun Flodigarry, broch 100m N of Flodigarry Hotel (4.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of St Moluag's Church,Kilmaluag Bay's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
St Moluag's Church,Kilmaluag Bay stands on Middle Jurassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Jurassic. The rock here is mudstone, sandstone and limestone.