Standing Building Recording

Date October 2006 - November 2006

Event ID 550344

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/550344

NH 705 658 Kirkmichael is a partly ruined and shortened church with possible origins in the 15th or 16th centuries. Ongoing works are aimed at informing a conservation strategy that will save the building from collapse. This phase of work in October - November 2006 was concerned with interrogating the nave E gable and chancel for evidence of roofing. The chancel of Kirkmichael (possibly dating to 1500), now an unroofed mausoleum, was almost certainly roofed during the early history of the building; evidence for this is plain in the detail of the E gable, the side walls and internal finishes. The nave E gable is uniformly sneck-harled with a shell-rich rough lime-based mixture, showing no evidence of an early abutting roof. This harl extends across the blocked doorway that formerly provided access between the nave and chancel. Burial monuments dating to the 18th century are set into this finish, suggesting that the chancel was blocked off and unroofed sometime in the 18th century. This assertion is supported by the general trend towards the alteration and changing use of chancels after the Reformation summarised by Richard Oram (2003) in his history of the parish

Archive to be deposited in NMRS, including digital photographs.

Sponsor: The Kirkmichael Trust.

G F Geddes 2006