Reference
Date 2001
Event ID 923370
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/923370
The medieval parish church of Luss, like its successor of 1771 and the present building of 1875, stood on the N bank of the Luss Water and 130m from the W shore of Loch Lomond. The church was dedicated to St Kessog, who is associated with the neighbouring island of Inchtavannach, and his bell was supposedly preserved on the island until the 19th century (a). The medieval effigy of an abbot or bishop, now much re-tooled, was found in the late 18th century in a cairn at Bandry (NS 3584 9003), the reputed site of Kessog's martyrdom, and is displayed in the church (b). Two cross-marked stones and a hogback grave-cover are in the churchyard, as well as a late medieval cross and at least five coped grave-covers (c).
(1) Rectangular slab of slate, broken at the top and foot and measuring 1.16m in height by 0.36m and 0.18m in thickness. One face has been roughly dressed with a pick and bears a cross incised with a U-section groove, 0.39m high and 0.34m across the side-arms. These are set a little above mid-height and extend to the edges of the slab, while the shaft, which is slightly curved, has rounded terminals.
(A D Lacaille 1925, 144 and fig.1 on p.145).
(2) Slab of red sandstone, 0.75m in height by 0.47m and 85mm in thickness. It is broken at the top right and much worn and flaked, but a cross is firmly incised on one face with a broad U-section groove. It measures 0.29m in height by 0.33m across the side-arms, which are set at mid-height. The terminals are slightly expanded and rounded, and in the four cantons there are hollows about 30mm in diameter.
(A D Lacaille 1925, 144 and fig.2 on p.145).
(3) Hogback grave-cover of grey sandstone with curved sides and ridge, lichen-stained and cracked and flaked in places. It is 1.78m long and at the centre is 0.43m high by 0.4m wide, tapering at the W end to 0.18m by 0.33m and at the E to 0.25m by 0.38m. The ridge appears to have been a plain raised band about 60mm wide but is now almost obliterated. On each slope of the roof, and following the curve of the ridge, there are four rows of round-ended tegulations. The sides of the stone are vertical and have been re-cut in Romanesque style, the N side bearing in false relief an arcade of nine bays. This has intersecting double-beaded round arches springing from plain pillars with block capitals but no bases. The S side bears at the centre a four-bay arcade with simple arch-heads enclosing pellets, and to the right there are three roundels, enclosing respectively a quatrefoil in false relief, a cross with curved arms and central pellet, and a triskele with concave sides. The ends taper slightly downwards from eaves-level (d).
Lang assigned this monument, on the basis of the curvature of the ridge and cross-section, to the earliest group of Scottish plain tegulated hogbacks, and proposed an 11th-century date. The arcades and roundels on the sides are clearly alterations of the following century, and the entire surfaces of both sides were re-dressed at that period. The continuing popularity of tegulated ornament at Luss in the 12th and 13th centuries is seen in several of the coped monuments recorded in the churchyard.
Footnotes:
(a) OPS 1851, 30-1; Sir W Fraser 1869, 2, 46-57, 138-42, 272-3; W J Watson 1926, 277-8; A D Lacaille 1928, 85-8; A D Lacaille 1934, 115-16. The possession of 'the bell and alms of St Cassog' was confirmed to George Buchanan of Buchanan in 1567 (Reg Magni Sig Reg Scot, 4 (1546-80), no.1757). Robert I in 1315/16 confirmed 'to God and St Kessog' the right of sanctuary for 4.9km in all directions (W Fraser 1869, 2, 58-9, 276).
(b) Stat. Acct., 17, 264; NSA, 8 (Dumbarton), 161; W Fraser 1869, 2, 54-6; R Brydall 1908, 23-4; A D Lacaille 1934, 100-11.
(c) R Brydall 1908, 23-6; A D Lacaille 1925, 145-6; A D Lacaille 1927, 140-1; A D Lacaille 1928, 88-96. For the possible removal of other medieval stones, see A Ritchie 1994, 45.
(d) J R Walker (1885, 418) thought that one end resembled the head of a fish. This may refer to a horizontal groove and a hollow at the W end of the N side, both of which appear to be natural.
T S Muir 1861, 26; J R Walker 1885, 418 and fig.9 on p.419 (reproduced in Allen 1902, fig. opp. p.402; A D Lacaille 1928, fig.2 on p.91); R Brydall 1908, 25 and fig.2; J T Lang 1975, 217-18, 220 and pl.16a, b.
I Fisher 2001, 84-5.
