Archaeology Notes

Event ID 703724

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/703724

NS53NW 7 50006 36698

(NS 5000 3669). Galstone parish church, dedicated to St Peter, was granted to the Red Friars at Fail in 1252. The present church was built in 1808, renovated 1879 and added to in 1913. It occupies the site of an earlier church, a plain oblong building, which may have been built in 1596, and to which additions were made in 1626 and later.

S of the church is the grave of Andrew Richmond, marked by a stone, renewed in 1823, inscribed 'Here lies Andrew Richmond, who was killed by Bloody Graham of Claverhouse June 1679 for his Adherence to the Word of God and Scotland's Covenanted Work of Reformation...etc'.

A modern monument also in the churchyard states that James Smith of East Threepwood was shot near Bank of Burn Ann (NS 518 355) by Capt Inglis and his dragoons and buried there. His name is on a list of fugitives proclaimed in 1684, but nothing further is known of him.

J Hendrie 1909; G Hay 1957; J H Thomson 1903

No remains of the old church exist. The covenanters' monuments are as described.

Visited by OS (JLD) 14 August 1956

No further information.

Visited by OS (JRL) 30 July 1982.

(NS 500 366) An evaluation was carried out in August 2003 prior to an extension to Hogg Hall. Two trenches were dug and a deposit of disarticulated human bone was found 0.3m below the surface, extending to a depth of at least 1.2m. A buried gravestone and two intact graves were also found. One contained fragments of skull from an articulated skeleton, accompanied by a shroud pin and three coffin nails. The evaluation concluded that the medieval and post-medieval cemetery had been disturbed during the construction of the 16th and 19th-century churches on the site, but that articulated burials were probably intact at a depth of 0.8m below the surface.

Report lodged with WoSAS SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsor: Galston Parish Church.

K G McLellan 2003