Field Visit
Date 27 July 1915
Event ID 1114390
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1114390
Old Parish Church, Cockpen.
The ruined parish church of Cockpen, which dates from the 13th century, is situated within the churchyard on the right bank of the South Esk, rather more than a mile south of Dalhousie Station. On plan it is a single-chambered oblong structure, that lies almost east and west, and measures 65 ½ by 14 feet within ashlar walls 3 feet thick.
In the 17th century the interior arrangements were altered by the provision of galleries at either end with accesses there to, and by the addition on the north of a projecting aisle, which is now a burial place; east of this a second and later burial place has been added. A vestry, contemporary with the north aisle, projects from the west end of the south wall and communicates with the church by a doorway with a semicircular head. A 17th-century belfry surmounts the west gable of the church.
Very little of the 13th-centurywork is actually visible, but portions of the ashlar walls are untouched. The east gable was lit by two tall, pointed lancets, the northern of which remains; its lower part, which was glazed, is narrower than the upper, which was shuttered. At the eastern angles are buttresses without intakes and of slight projection, terminating at wall-head level in weathered offsets. The lateral walls have been pierced by lancet windows; these have been built up and replaced by larger windows with lintels. The ruin is in an unsatisfactory condition, although the walls are entire.
TOMBSTONE. Against the south wall, beside the central door, is a stone that measures 2 feet by 1 ¼ feet by 4 inches; on this is carved a cross-patty with an apparently later and comparatively modern inscription, of which only the beginning, ‘Here lyes’, is legible.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 27 July 1915.
