2770: Baile na Cille, Lewis

Baile na Cille (also known as Balnacille or Balnacil), the Place of the Sanctuary, is a low promontory at the north end of Uig Sands. The area is believed to have been a centre for worship for many centuries; certainly the location is peaceful and striking, overlooking as it does the wide expanse of the beach, with the mountains of Uig and Harris rising to the south.

On the shore is an ancient graveyard, containing the scant remains of a chapel, possibly on a more ancient site. Next to the cemetery are the remains of what is believed to be the old thatched church, which was replaced in the 1820s by Baile na Cille Church, a few hundred yards away up the road. Baile na Cille is dominated by the former manse (built 1784, now a guesthouse) and the surrounding glebelands.

There was a substantial farm at Baile na Cille; c1460 it was held by Norman, the son of Norman Macleod of Pabbay, until after a bitter feud with the Macaulays it, along with Crowlista, passed to John Roy Macaulay and his half-brother Malcolm.

The remains of a township dating from before the 19th century is located at the head of Traigh nan Sruban, over the hill from the Manse. Substantial evidence of cultivation, in deeply-cut feannags or lazybeds, remain on the western side of the promontory.

There was also a small settlement called Baile na Cille on the Isle of Pabbay.