Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704621

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704621

NS67NW 2.00 61021 79641

NS67NW 2.01 61055 79624 Lennox Family Vault and Waiting Room

(NS 6102 7963) St Machan's Church (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6" map, (1958)

The old parish church stands in its graveyard at the Clachan of Campsie. It, or its predecessor, was dedicated to St Machan, a disciple of St Cadoc, who was buried at Campsie (Mackinlay 1910). A church of Campsie was mentioned among the prebendal churches of Glasgow in a bull of 1216 (OPS 1851). It was abandoned in 1828, when the new parish church was built (at NS 6282 7800), and is now reduced to a fragment consisting only of the W gable, part of the N wall, and the footings of part of the S wall. Its original length is uncertain, but may have been about 77'; its breadth is 26'8" over walls 3'10" thick. The W gable is built in a style suggestive of the 17th century, but it is on record that the gable was taken down and rebuilt at some unstated time (Cameron 1892) and this seems to be corroborated by the break appearing in the masonry where the N wall joins the gable. The N wall is reduced to a greatest height of about 6'10" and is 29'5" in length; its end is original and has been plastered, and probably marks one side of the opening of a central N aisle. The S wall returns only 4'5" from the W end, though its footings continue a further 23' until interrupted by a burial enclosure.

On the E side of the graveyard is the Lennox family vault, a harled, two storeyed structure 16'6" by 16'2", now thickly covered by ivy. The keystone above the entrance is dated 1715. The upper storey is said to have been added early in the 19th century.

Orig Paroch Scot 1851; J M Mackinlay 1910; J Cameron 1892; RCAHMS 1963, visited 1953.

St Machan's Church and the Lennox mausoleum are as described by the RCAHMS.

Visited by OS (J L D) 25 March 1957 and (W D J) 2 May 1966.