In this view, the near wall is the western end. Remains of two lancet windows can be seen in the far end-wall (which is shown in
NS2489 : Ruins of Faslane Chapel).
The entrance is in the southern wall; that wall is out of sight in this particular view, but is shown in
NS2489 : Ruins of Faslane Chapel. The southern wall is, in any case, a restoration; by the end of the nineteenth century, and for reasons that are explained below, none of that wall remained, except for the parts immediately adjacent to the eastern and western end walls.
The name St Michael's Chapel is sometimes associated with the ruin. According to William Fraser, in the second volume of "The Chiefs of Colquhoun and their Country" (1869), it was George Chalmers, in his work "Caledonia" (published in several parts from 1807 onwards), who supposed the chapel to have been dedicated to St Michael.
Fraser provides some useful information about the ruined chapel. For example, he states that the building measured 43 feet by 23, and that when offices were to be built for Faslane farm, the ruined chapel was seen as a convenient source of hewn stones, and was treated like a quarry. A small burial ground was associated with the chapel, and was attached to its western end.
Fraser states that this burial ground was still being put to use, though only very occasionally, in his day. This accounts for the fact that most of the stones that can presently be seen in that area were erected in the nineteenth century; in fact, a few of them appear to be from as late as 1904, and these presumably also pre-date, though not by long, the opening of the present-day cemetery. Fraser also notes that the chapel has probably not been used as a place of worship since the Reformation.
The southern boundary wall of the present-day Faslane Cemetery can be seen in the background of this photograph; the ruined chapel is nestled within the cemetery's south-western corner.
John Thompson's 1832 map of Dumbartonshire marks this site "Roman Catholic Chapel in ruins".
Faslane was, long ago, the seat of the Earls of Lennox, and this chapel is just one of a number of historic sites in the area.
For example, there was a Faslane Castle nearby: by the late nineteenth century, there were only faint traces of it left, and these last vestiges were subsequently swept away by the construction of the West Highland Railway.
Not far away, an old dun (Gaelic "sean dùn") –
Link – probably gave Shandon its name, and it may have preceded Faslane Castle as a seat of power. Near the old dun is Tom a' Mhòid ("moot hill", "hill of meeting [for judgement]"):
Link