Archaeology Notes
Date 1962 - 1981
Event ID 718176
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/718176
NT58SE 11 59627 81524
(NT 5962 8151) Whitekirk Parish Church: In the 12th century, Whitekirk was simply a parish church (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) belonging to Holyrood Abbey, but by about 1300 miracles of healing were being performed at a nearby well (NT58SE 30) and the church was placed under the protection of James I; it reverted to its position as a parish church in the 17th century and survived almost without alteration until 1914, when it was set on fire by suffragettes. The walls sustained little damage and a careful restoration was carried out by Robert Lorimer. It is cruciform on plan with a squat central tower and a two-bay choir with prominent buttresses. The only medieval tracery is in the S window. The E wall is blank except for a small oculus high up (renewed correctly after 1914) and a small armorial panel; the arms have been identified as those of Abbot Crawford of Holyrood (1460-83). This is not reconcilable in any obvious way with a record that Adam Hepburn of Hailes Castle built the choir in 1439. The N transept has no old features and the S transept is of 1830, much rebuilt by Lorimer.
Central tower with small two-light openings, a stair-turret at the NW corner and a low slated spire recessed behind a corbelled parapet. The N wall of the nave opens into a shallow rectangular projection added in 1832 and rewindowed by Lorimer. The S porch has a large, roughly detailed arch, a canopied niche over diagonal buttresses and, inside, a tunnel-vault with surface ribs. Plain pointed tunnel-vault over the choir. The crossing is entirely Lorimer's but reproduces the old design. Also by Lorimer the ceiled wagon roof over the nave and transepts.
C McWilliam 1978; RCAHMS 1924, visited 1913; D MacGibbon and Ross 1897; D C Bailey and M C Tindall 1963
Photographed by the RCAHMS in 1978.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
Whitekirk Parish Church: in use,
Visited by OS (WDJ), [no date cited].
