St Moluag's Cathedral, Lismore

St Moluag’s Cathedral stands on the low, fertile island of Lismore, where the Irish missionary Moluag, who died in 592, is said to have founded a monastery. In an age when water offered the swiftest travel, the island lay conveniently among the sea-roads of the western coast, and by the Middle Ages the church here had become the seat of the bishops of Argyll. That diocese was among the poorest in Scotland, and the cathedral it raised was correspondingly modest. Building work probably began during the episcopate of Laurence de Ergadia (1262-1299), with the western tower added later under Bishop Martin (1342-1387). In 1749 the medieval choir was reworked into a parish church: it was lowered and given fresh windows, while the nave and tower were levelled to their foundations. What survives is therefore only a fragment of the original, though a striking one. Three medieval doorways remain, along with a piscina, a triple-arched sedilia and late-medieval carved grave slabs. Despite its grand name, the building now serves as a working parish church of the Church of Scotland, linked with Appin on the mainland, and remains in regular use.