Field Visit
Date 9 July 1913
Event ID 1087118
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087118
The ruin of the old Parish Church of Gullane which was dedicated to St. Andrew lies within the churchyard on the north side of the village street. The structure dates from the second half of the 12th century and has been altered in the 13th and 15th centuries. It is oblong on plan (RCAHMS 1924, fig. 52), and has a long narrow nave, without aisles, that opened into a chancel of lesser width by an archway, which is now built up. At the eastern end of the nave a transept was added c. late 15th century projecting from the north wall and opening to the nave by an archway, since filled in, and with a comparatively modern doorway inserted in the infilling. Modern partitions divide the ruin into private burial places.
The chancel is square-ended and has been prolonged 17 feet from the length of 20 feet obtaining, as shewn by the window details, in the 13th century. The width is16 feet and the walls are 3 feet thick. In the north wall is an arched recess, 2 ½ feet high and 2 feet broad, now built up but possibly the remains of a sacrament house. In the south wall are two narrow 13th century lancet windows with pointed arched heads.
The chancel arch (RCAHMS 1924, fig. 53) is 8 feet wide and has two plain orders on the eastern face. To the nave the archivolt is enriched with the chevron ornament beneath a triple surfaced label. The jambs are square, and from each projects a semi-shaft terminating in multi-cubical capitals with cabled neckings. The rybats on the western side of the jamb are secondary.
The nave has been altered in post-Reformation times so as to leave no features of interest. The width is 19 feet and the length indeterminate.
The built-up archway to the transept is semicircular. The archivolt and jambs have chamfered edges and are separated by impost capitals. The transept has been lit from an arch-headed window in its north wall now built up.
The external dimensions are as under:
Nave: 25 feet wide with a present length of 71 feet.
Chancel: 21 ½ feet wide with a present length of 37 feet.
Transept: 21 ¼ feet wide with a present length of 20 ½ feet.
The structure is densely covered with ivy and is in a very ruinous and unsound condition.
FONT. Built into a wall on the left-hand side of the road leading to Dirleton is a roughly quadrangular stone 20 inches long with a centre bowl 7 inches in diameter, which is said to have been used as a baptismal font at this church (1);it is more probably a large cresset stone.
HISTORICAL NOTE. The church of St. Andrew at 'Golyn' in the diocese of St. Andrews was in existence before 1170, when its patronage was granted to the convent of Dryburgh on behalf of the church at Fidra (cf. RCAHMS 1924, No. 26). It was the ‘mother church’ of a chapel at Congleton and the chapel of ‘All Saints’ at Dirleton; and was formally dedicated by David de Bernham in 1242. By this bishop in the same year it was reduced from a rectory or parsonage to the grade of a vicarage served by one of the canons of Dryburgh with the assistance of a secular priest. The vicar was to receive 12 marks annually, the balance of income accruing to the general revenues of the abbey, then under a load of debt (mole debitorum). In 1290 the revenues of the church were valued for tithe at £48. The church also paid to the bishop of St. Andrews four marks yearly as 'procuration' or commuted visiting expenses and four marks as ‘ancient cain’ (pro antiquo cano) or food-rent. In the Dryburgh rental of 1560-70 the Kirk of 'Gulen' is set for £151. Its history throughoutis bound up with that of Dryburgh (2).
In 1612 by Act of Parliament the ‘Kirk of Gulane’ was translated to Dirleton on the grounds that it was in a remote corner of the parish and thus inconvenient and that church and churchyard were being ‘continewallie overblawin with sand’. The stones and timber were, if necessary, to be used in erecting the new kirk at Dirleton (3).
RCAHMS 1924, visited 9 July 1913.
(1) Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xxi., p. 377 (illus.); (2) Liber de Dryburgh passim; Pontificale Ecclesice S. Andrece; (3) Act. Parl. Scot. iv., p. 490 ; cf. 1633 v., p. 106.
