Archaeology Notes

Event ID 688643

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/688643

NO42NW 18.00 44571 25953

(NO 4457 2595) St Fillan's or Forgan Church (NR) (In Ruins).

OS 6" map (1919).

NO42NW 18.01 NO 44551 25946 Churchyard

NO42NW 18.02 Centred on NO 4446 2595 Field Survey Area; Metal Artifacts [miscellaneous]

"St Fillan's or Forgan Church. The ruins of this church lie within a graveyard two miles south east of Newport. The building is oblong, measuring internally 66ft 8 inches from east to west by 19 feet 4 inches, with an aisle 17 feet 8 inches by 16 feet 2 inches projecting on the north. The walls stand almost complete to the wallhead but are so densely covered with ivy that no details are visible. The aisle and the east end have at one time been fitted with galleries. The opening into the former is a wide semi-circular arch with imposts, probably dating from the late 16th or early 17th century."

"A tombstone lying half buried within the chancel...is referred to in the county list as that of Mrs Catherine Faill, 1578". "The Parish church of St Philans or Forgun that was one of the kirks of the priory of St Andrews (R Sibbald 1803) (Fife 9 SW 2).

RCAHMS 1933

"The old kirk of Forgan...presents no architectural features of special interest, nor is there anything in its construction to show the date of its erection, though the simplicity of its form suggests that it belonged to an early period, probably the beginning of the fourteenth century." It was used as the parish church until 1841 when the new church was built.

A H Millar 1895

St Fillan's Church is as described by RCAHMS, the walls being of plaster covered rubble masonry, the aisle walls being 0.6m thick, the others 1.0m. The building is ivy covered and is in ruins.

Visited by OS (DS) 22 October 1956

As described by the previous authorities.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 2 June 1964

Sixty fragments of medieval floor tiling found while levelling soil outside the S wall of the chancel of the ruined church.

J di Falco 1971.

A watching brief was kept by Scotia Archaeology Ltd during the demolition of the walls and their foundations on the N, E and W sides of the Berry family enclosure, located on the S side of the churchyard. There was no evidence of structures pre-dating the ?late 19th/early 20th-century walls or of inhumations within the 0.65m-wide and 0.3m-deep trenches that resulted from the removal of these structures.

Sponsor: NE Fife District Council.

A Barlow and D Reed 1993.