Leitholm

The first recorded mention of Leitholm Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is in a document dating from the mid-thirteenth century, when it was one of three chapels confirmed to Eccles Priory. The chapel may have been destroyed in 1545 when the Earl of Hertford carried out a devastating raid in the Borders.

Until the nineteenth century an ash tree marked the site of the chapel, but there are no traces of either the building or the tree today. A modern house stands on the site of the associated burial-ground, from which bones and stones have occasionally been turned up.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT74SE 4 7871 4411.

(NT 7871 4411) Chapel (NR) (site of)

OS 1:10,0000, (1972).

(NT 7871 4411) Chapel Tree (NAT) Supposed Site of Chapel (NR).

(NT 7875 4403) Grave Yard (NR) (Site of)

OS 6"map, Berwickshire, 2nd ed., (1909).

Chapel Tree, a large ash tree standing on Chapel Knowe, is said to mark the site of a Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, of which no vestiges now remain. The adjoining ground was used for burials, but is now cultivated; bones and coffins have occasionally been dug up. Name Book 1858; New Statistical Account (NSA, J Thomson) 1845; Fasti Eccles Scot, H Scott ed. et al 1917, J Robson 1896.

No traces remain of this chapel. All trace of the Chapel Tree has vanished and the site of the graveyard is now occupied by private houses.

Visited by OS(JD) 18 January 1955.

Nothing remains of this chapel and burial ground. The chapel is recorded in 1250 (I B Cowan 1967).

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1979.