Archaeology Notes

Event ID 674949

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/674949

NM82NE 36 85694 25705

(NM 85694 25705) Church (NAT) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

The roofless ruins of the old Parish Church of Kilbride stand on the north side of a churchyard which was enclosed shortly after 1794. The existing structure, which dates from 1706, replaced an earlier church, dedicated to St Bridget,with construction phases ranging from the 13th to the 15th century. After the Reformation, the parish was united with Kilmore, but retained its own church.

By 1671, this earlier building had become very ruinous and in 1706 the present structure was erected. It was rectangular on plan, measuring 15.3 metres E-W by 6.1 metres within walls 0.7 metres thick.

In 1744, all the original windows were enlarged and the south door blocked, a small splayed window being constructed in the blocking. Further restoration in 1842-3 resulted in the rebuilding of the upper parts of the walls and a session-house was added at the centre of the north wall, with a doorway in the SE angle. The church was partially demolished in 1876 to be replaced by a new building at Cleigh.

The blocked door at the centre of the south wall, two doors at ground and gallery level in the west gable-wall and the lower part of another doorway in the east gable-wall are surviving features of the original structure.

The MacDougall burial aisle, 2 metres south of the church, is a roofless, rectangular enclosure, whilst in the churchyard, there are many inscribed medieval funerary monuments.

RCAHMS 1975, visited 1975.

As described.

Surveyed at 1:2500 scale.