In 672 the Irish monk Máel Ruba came from Bangor and founded a monastery here, in what was then Pictish territory. He was its first abbot and died in 722; the deaths of several of his successors are recorded in the Irish annals into the early 9th century. The present parish church at Clachan dates from 1817 and stands on the site of the monastery.
Almost nothing of the monastery survives above ground, but a large, unfinished cross-slab stands in the churchyard, and three finely carved fragments of another are kept inside the church. It's a quiet, green spot at the head of the bay.