Desk Based Assessment
Date 29 June 1976
Event ID 1015707
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015707
(NS 0236 5962) St Marnock's Chapel (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, (1957)
Though Fordun alleges that there was a monastery on Inchmarnock, there is no evidence for this. The island had a parish church, mentioned in 1390-1 (Easson 1957).
St Marnock's Chapel (Watson 1926) was robbed of stone in 1718 for farm building, and nothing could be seen at the site until clearance work carried out in 1973-4 showed that it was a small Romanesque building with red sandstone pillars between the paved nave and the E end, which now stands five courses high. A long cist lies against the S wall of the E end. The associated cemetery is now a stackyard, and built into its wall is a cross-shaft, 26 1/2ins x 11ins x 3ins, as shown on Illustration Card, together with another cross-incised stone, found in a wall at Mid Park in 1972. Another graveyard, known as the "Women's Burial-place" was traceable in a field adjoining the church in the mid-19th century. A cross-incised slab, was found in 1891. Hewison (1893-5) notes that on the opposite side of the road, close to where this stone was found, a row of cists, each some 3ft x 2ft, is visible, the tops of the small thin stones forming their sides showing a few inches above ground.
A fragment of a cross-slab, inscribed with Scandinavian runes, now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) (Accession Number IB 93), was turned up in 1889 on the W side of the road, 50 yds N of the grave yard, and just beside the cists. Another sandstone cross-shaft, 17 1/2ins x 12ins x 2 1/2ins, with a badly weathered design of either ornamental geometric figures or animals, was found in the same place. Further fragments of carved stones were found during the excavations of 1973-4.
Information from OS (IF) 29 June 1976
D E Easson 1957; W J Watson 1926; D N Marshall and R Middleton 1972; D N Marshall 1973; 1974; J K Hewison 1893; NMAS 1892.
