One can best understand the remoteness of this area with a stop in Lochaline, population 200, the main village in the Morvern area of Highland, Scotland. The coastal village lies at the mouth of Loch Aline, a small salt water loch (lake) home to fish, birds and game, on the northern shore of the Sound of Mull. From here one can take the ferry to Fishnish on the Isle of Mull, a 20 minute ride. The village’s amenities include a grocery shop, post office, petrol station, hotel, restaurant, community center, marina, ferry landing and public conveniences. Ardtornish Castle can be seen across the loch on a point overlooking the Sound of Mull.
A mile from the village is Kiel church and graveyard. The 19th century church contains over 17 medieval grave slabs, (preserve d in a building separate from the church) a reminder of the late medieval flowering of Gaelic culture associated with the Lordship of the Isles. I would speculate that the grave slabs are, in some way, connected to Ardtornish Castle as there are some dated in the 14th and 15th century.
Kiel takes its name from Cille Choluimchille, the religious cell or monastery of St. Columba ‘Of the Church’ who travelled through Northern Scotland in the 6th-century A.D. with news of the Christian gospel and who built the first church here, as the tradition has it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lochaline
