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Publication Account

Date 1981

Event ID 1018211

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018211

The chapel of St. Nicholas possibly dates to the thirteenth century (Irving and Murray, 1864, ii, 263). Mary, Queen of Scots apparently gifted the structure to the town and council meetings were at times convened in it. Repairs were carried out on the chapel in the seventeenth century and additions made in the early eighteenth century included the erection of lofts (Renwick, 1893, xxv). The present parish church was built partially on the site of St. Nicholas Chapel, under an agreement with the heritors.

The present parish church stands in the centre of town. It was erected in 1774 and resulted in the removal of the market cross which supposedly spoiled the view of the church. An early nineteenth- century observer denounced the structure as 'in all respects insufficient and inelegant and not one thing tasteful, save its handsome pulpit' (Davidson, 1828, 38). These sentiments were echoed some years later by one who wrote that the church had 'no pretensions to architectural display' (Cowan, 1867, 36). The church is however, noted for its statue of the Scots hero William Wallace who, according to tradition, slew the English governor in Lanark in 1296.

Information from ‘Historic Lanark: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).

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