Archaeology Notes

Event ID 697959

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/697959

NS06SE 1 08620 63703.

NS 0862 6367) St Mary's Church (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map (1924)

The parish church of Rothesay stands on the site of the Cathedral of the Isles. The church has a double dedication, to St Brioc, a 6th century Saint, and to the Virgin Mary. The original pre-Reformation church was removed in 1692, and on its site another erected, which was also taken down in 1796 to give place to the present structure.

The 13th chapel adjoining the church, called St Mary's Kilmary, or Lady Kirk, is supposed to be the chancel or choir, of the original edifice and believed by MacGibbon and Ross to have been part of the 16th century Abbey Church of St Mary. It measures 27ft 7in long, 17ft 8in broad, and about 9ft high, and the lower portions of the walls are of an older structure.

J K Hewison says that the 13th century architectural style of the chapel is easily seen, while MacGibbon and Ross state that structure and monuments are undoubtedly late - probably 16th century.

The choir of the Abbey Church of St Mary stands beside the modern church - its structure is of 16th century date.

J K Hewison 1889; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1897

The "St Mary's Abbey" referred to by MacGibbon and Ross was not a monastic building, but evidently the mediaeval parish church.

D E Easson 1957

A sculptured stone (c.8th c AD) was found in 1816 when clearing out St Brieuc's chapel and is now preserved at Rothesay Castle.

J Stuart 1867

St Mary's Chapel. This chapel was originally the east end or chancel of the parish Church of Rothesay. It is probably 16th century work.

Information from MoW plaque.

NS 08626370. This chapel is as described above. In the Bute Museum is the cross slab found in St Brieuc's Chapel in 1816, it has no accession number.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 14 January 1964

The medieval parish church of Rothesay stood on a hillside about 1.2km S of Rothesay Bay, and its roofless late medieval chancel is situated S of the present church. Sources from the 14th century onwards record that its dedication was to the Virgin Mary, but local tradition also recorded an association with St Brioc or Brieuc.

I Fisher 2001, 80.