Archaeology Notes

Event ID 730409

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/730409

NY07SE 11 08917 74685

(NY 0891 7468) Little Dalton Church (NR)

(Remains of)

OS 6" map (1957)

Not to be confused with Dalton, Old Parish Church (NY 1143 7397), for which see NY17SW 1.

Meikle and Little Dalton were first united by Parliament in 1609 but Little Dalton was joined to Mouswald by letter of James VI to the Privy Council, 27 May 1615. It was again united to Meikle Dalton on 28 June 1633.

H Scott 1915-61.

The outer walls of the probably early 16th c church remain. The building measures 52 1/2 ft E-W by 25 1/2 ft, with a sacristy 16 3/4 ft by 17 ft on its N side, over walls from 2 ft to 3 ft thick and 8 ft high.

RCAHMS 1920

As described by the RCAHMS. In the small graveyard (now disused) attached to the S side of the church are a number of headstones, mainly early 18th century, although one bears the date 1665. Enclosing the church and graveyard are the remains of an earth-and-stone bank, probably indicating the perimeter of the original churchyard.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 30 October 1967

Dalton Parva (Glasgow, Annandale). A parsonage in Bagimond, the church remained unappropriated within the patronage of Carruthers of Holmains in the 16th century.

I B Cowan 1967.

The church was cleared of debris, and partially rebuilt and strengthened in 1968-9. The excavations exposed the plan of the building, revealing features including a stone bench-seat and a raised sanctuary area. The latter is unusual in that it is confined, asymmetrically, to the S side of the E wall. The doorways were cleared out and a sequence of floors determined. The building appears to date from the mid to late 15th century, and includes fragments of an earlier (?) 13th century building. The church became disused in 1633.

Finds include a fragment of medieval pottery, a Richmond copper farthing (1625-34), a possible mortuary cross and numbers of 17th - 18th century clay pipe fragments. In 1974, skeletal material was recovered from the charnel pit of the church.

J Williams 1968; 1969; A E Truckell 1974; New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845 (T H Thomson).

Little Dalton Church, Kirkhill. Roofless remains in an unwalled hraveyard overgrown with trees. The rubble-built church is perhaps of the early 16th century. T-plan with an off-centre N 'aisle'. Near the W end of the main block's N wall, a plain round-arched doorway. Three windows, all with rectangular rear-arches survive intact. One (at the W end of the S wall) is a small lancet; to its E, a round-arched light. At the E end of the N wall, a rectangular window. Roundhead arch with projecting imposts from the body into the 'aisle'.

J Gifford 1996.

Scheduled as 'Little Dalton Church... the remains of Little Dalton kirk.'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 7 November 2007.