| Location Map: | Scotland Argyll and Bute |
| Official Name: | Eilean Mòr |
| Coordinates: | 55.9145°N -5.7357°W |
| Gridreference: | NR666753 |
| Meaning Of Name: | Big isle |
| Area: | 18ha |
| Highest Elevation: | 21m (69feet) |
| Population: | 0 |
| Island Group: | MacCormaig Isles |
| Local Authority: | Argyll and Bute |
Eilean Mòr ("Big Isle") is one of the MacCormaig Isles situated near the entrance to Loch Sween in the Sound of Jura, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Eilean Mòr is uninhabited.[1]
Eilean Mòr is the largest of the MacCormaig Islands, and is a breeding ground for seabirds.[2] The island is the legendary retreat of the 7th-century Saint Cormac.[2] It has three ancient monuments on it in the care of Historic Environment Scotland: a cave, a chapel and a cross.[3] The island was bequeathed to the Scottish National Party in 1978, and it has been managed since 2000 by a charitable trust.[4]
St Cormac's Cave is on the south end of the island.[3] The cave is around 3 metres long, 1 metre wide and 2 metres high, and contains two incised crosses on its east wall, dated by their style to around 700 AD.[3] Saint Cormac (or Cormaic, Carmaig, Charmaig) is an obscure figure; he lived at the beginning of the 7th century and he may have been a son of Cormac, King of Leinster.[5] He is the legendary founder of Keills Chapel 3.5 miles to the north on the Scottish mainland, and he is reputed to have used this cave as his hermitage.[3] The rough stone wall in front of the cave may have been a medieval structure to control pilgrim access to the cave.[3]
The chapel is a rectangular building measuring 11.5 x 6 m externally.[6] It was built in the 13th century, and was altered in the 14th century, when John MacDonald, 1st Lord of the Isles had the chancel upgraded.[3] It was converted into a dwelling house around 1700, and used by a tenant of Macneil of Gillchoille, the island's owner.[3] The chapel was surrounded by a burial ground, now mostly obliterated,[6] but the headless effigy of a medieval cleric can still be seen on the south side of the chancel.[6]
Beside the chapel stands St Cormac's Cross, believed to date from the 10th-century.[3] Legend claims that it stands at the west end of the grave of Saint Cormac.[7] Only the shaft and the lower part of the ringed cross survive.[7] It stands 1.75 metres in visible height, but was originally at least 2.8 metres tall.[7] The east face shows two wrestling beak-headed monsters with tails and prominent genitals, above which is a hooded rider astride an oversized horse, and then a large monster gripping a snake in its jaws and linked by its tail and crest to a cruciform group of four animals at the top of the shaft.[7] The decoration on the west face is damaged, but two squatting beasts can be seen with interpenetrating necks and large heads.[7]
Another cross can be seen on the island's highest point, and is a replica of the late 14th-century cross erected by Mariota de Ros, wife of Donald MacDonald, 2nd Lord of the Isles.[3] The original was removed to the National Museum of Scotland in 1937.[3]