Archaeology Notes

Event ID 702848

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/702848

NS52NW 7 50082 27351

(NS 5008 2736) Martyrs' Grave (NAT) (Gillies, Bryce, Young, Feddison and Brunning) (NAT)

OS 25" map (1856)

A large flat stone, 12ft by 6ft, renewed in 1830, marks the grave of five martyrs who were hanged here on the 6th May 1685. They were buried in a trench near the gallows. The inscription on the stone reads:

"Here lies the bodies of Peter Gillies, John Bryce, Thomas Young, William Fiddison, and John Bruning who were Apprehended and Hanged Without Trial at Mauchline, Anno 1685, according to the then Wicked's Laws for their Adhearance to the Covenanted Work of Reformation Rev xii II. Bloody Dumbarton, Douglas and Dundee Moved by the Devil and the Laird of Lee, Dragged these five men to Death with gun and suord, Not Suffering them to Pray nor Read God's Word. Ouning the Work of God was all their Crime. The Eighty Five Was a Saint Killing Time."

The old decayed tombstone from which the above inscription is copied lies below.

J Gibson 1881; J H Thomson 1903

The stone described by Gibson was replaced in 1885 by an obelisk. The original stone is now inserted a few yards away facing the back of the monument.

J T Gibb 1911

The railed obelisk, about 4m high, is situated beside a pathway at NS 5008 2734, and the original stone is placed some 13 m away in the wall of a school outbuilding at NS 5008 2736. An inscription on the obelisk states that it is the third memorial stone on the site, the second being a copy of the original. This second stone lies beneath the obelisk.

Visited by OS (JRL) 7 October 1981