Archaeology Notes

Event ID 710354

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/710354

NT06NE 4 08418 67808.

(NT 0841 6780) St Cuthbert's Kirk (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6" map (1958)

East Calder parish church, which was dedicated to St Cuthbert, is now ruinous, and measures 53' x 17' internally. The N wall has been removed to give access to the burial places which now occupy the interior. The S wall and gables are entire. The W gable is surmounted by a 17th century belfry, from which the bell has been removed. In the E gable are the remains of a late Gothic window. The old doorways and windows have been built up. The SDD give an earlier 16th century date for the church.

A cross slab, bearing a Maltese cross, 20" x 14", has been incorporated in the W gable. East Calder (Calder-Clere) was disjoined from Calder Comities (Mid and W Calder) in 1641, this church then becoming the parish chruch. It fell into neglect after the union of the parish with Kirknewton in 1751.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 1915; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1897; SDD List 1963

The remains of the church are as described. No further information.

Visited by OS (JLD) 21 February 1953 and (DWR) 27 March 1974.

Calder-Clere (St Andrews, Linlithgow). Now known as East Calder, the church was granted to Kelso by Ralph de Clere, c. 1170. Subsequent confirmations included one to the uses of the abbey (1188 x 1200) and a vicarage settlement (c. 1251). The parsonage was set by the Abbey at the Reformation, while a seperate vicarage continued.

I B Cowan 1967.