Keills Chapel and Cross

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no car park: access is by a single-track road with passing places, and from the end of the road visitors walk about 300 metres across rough agricultural land, boggy in places and partly uphill, to the chapel. Park considerately at the road end without blocking the gate or the track beyond.

Driving pin: the end of the public road at the gate, 293 m east of Historic Scotland's own pin on the chapel, six miles south-west of Tayvallich off the B8025. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Keills Chapel stands at the tip of the Tayvallich peninsula above Loch Sween, a simple chapel of the 1100s dedicated to St Cormac and now roofed to shelter almost 40 carved stones from the 700s to the 1500s. The finest is the Keills Cross, a free-standing high cross of the 700s in blue slate about two metres high, very like the crosses of Iona and the only one of its type on the mainland. Its single carved face has panels of spirals, animals and interlace, a figure between lions who is almost certainly Daniel, a central boss like that of the Kildalton Cross on Islay, and St Michael slaying a dragon at the top. Around it are early Christian cross-marked slabs and many later West Highland grave slabs, one with a harp inscribed O'Cuinn had me made. The last miles are single-track; from the end of the B8025 it is a walk of about 300 metres over rough, sometimes boggy ground, partly uphill.

Check today’s timesPick a day for times and prices

Until 31 Mar: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30
From 1 Apr: Daily 09:30–17:30, last entry 17:00

Today, Saturday 24 October

Keills Chapel and Cross10:00 – 16:00last entry 15:30

Free entry

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm; 1 October to 31 March daily 10am to 4pm; last entry 30 minutes before closing. No closures or notices on 20 October 2026; not on Historic Scotland's closures page.

An unstaffed, roofed chapel holding the Keills Cross and almost 40 carved stones, with information plaques inside. The 300 m walk from the road end crosses rough, sometimes boggy ground with an uphill section, so strong footwear is recommended. No toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The small stone chapel at Keills with its slate roof inside a drystone graveyard wall, the loch beyond at the left. Steven Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keills_Chapel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_8332371.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.