St Columba’s Church, or Ui Church from the Gaelic for isthmus, is a 14th-century ruin sitting on the Aignish peninsula near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. It is also known as the Eye Church, or its Gaelic equivalent Eaglais na h-Aoidhe. It was one of the most important medieval churches in the Western Isles, but now it is in danger of being lost to the sea.
The cemetery around the church once extended at least 10 metres further than it does now, providing a buTher for storm force winds and waves but over time this graveyard has been claimed by the sea, along with the human remains which it once held. Now, the waves of Broad Bay lap at the very foundations of the church.
The Ui Church Trust, Urras Eaglais na h-Aoidhe, was formed in 2001 to safeguard, consolidate and preserve it. Now its annual Colm Cille lecture has claimed a grave called the Sword Stone most likely marks the exact burial spot of the clan chiefs of the Macleods of Lewis.