Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017446
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017446
The four-stage circular tower of this ruinous church is conspicuous in the centre of Portpatrick, and was probably designed to serve both as a belfry and navigational beacon for the early harbour (no. 1). The shell of the church to which it is attached is of an equal-anned crucifonn plan, and is dated on the gable skewput (the lowest stone), 1629; a screen-wall was subsequently built across the western aisle to fonn a T-plan interior. The church was lit by lintelled and mullioned windows in each of the three gables, and above them on the outer walls are spaces for carved panels. Moulded fragments, possibly from a medieval chapel on this site, have been reused in the building fabric. Prior to the current scheme of restoration and consolidation, the tower was repaired in about 1880, and the church last used for worship in 1842 when the present parish church was built.
Some of the tombstones in the burial-ground commemorate the maritime tragedies which have beset Portpatrick, the most poignant perhaps being that to the fifty victims of the wrecked steamship, Orion, in 1850.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
