Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Scheduled Maintenance Notice
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance starting on Thursday, 30th January at 11:00 AM and will last until Friday, 31st January at 10:00 AM.
During this time, the site and certain functions may be partially or fully unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Field Visit
Date 15 August 1908
Event ID 1088675
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1088675
275. Polwarth Church.
Situated about ½ mile south-south-east of the village of Polwarth is a reconstructed edifice dating from 1703, on the site of an ancient building. It measures 55 feet by 24 feet externally, and has a tower at the west end. The vault beneath the east end probably belongs to an earlier structure; it is believed to have formed the hiding-place in 1684 of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, afterwards first Earl of Marchmont, who had been declared a participant in the Ryehouse Plot (1). There is a long Latin inscription on the south wall, giving the history of the church and the date of the reconstruction.
Font.
A plain but complete example of a baptismal font stands within the churchyard, near the gate. The bowl is circular, and externally it tapers slightly towards the base. There is no stem proper, the bowl standing on a circular slab, which rests on another and larger slab forming the base. The total height from the ground is 2 feet 9 inches; the external diameter of the bowl is 2 feet 4 inches; the diameter of the orifice 1 foot 10 inches, and the depth 2 inches. The font dates probably from the 13th century.
See Ber. Nat. Club, 1890-91, p. 163; Humes of Polwarth, p. 7; Antiquaries, xxi. p. 361; 1 Scots Peerage, vi. p. 13.
RCAHMS 1915, visited 15th August 1908.
OS Map: Ber., xxii. NW.
