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Forgan, St Fillan's Church, Churchyard
Burial Ground (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Churchyard (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Site Name Forgan, St Fillan's Church, Churchyard
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Churchyard (Medieval) - (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 104819
Site Number NO42NW 18.01
NGR NO 44551 25946
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/104819
- Council Fife
- Parish Forgan
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
NO42NW 18.01 44551 25946
A watching brief was kept by Scotia Archaeology Ltd during the demolition of the walls and their foundations on the N, E and W sides of the Berry family enclosure, located on the S side of the churchyard. There was no evidence of structures pre-dating the ?late 19th/early 20th-century walls or of inhumations within the 0.65m-wide and 0.3m-deep trenches that resulted from the removal of these structures.
Sponsor: NE Fife District Council.
A Barlow and D Reed 1993.
Field Visit (26 May 1927)
St. Fillan's (1) or Forgan Church.
The ruins of this church lie within a graveyard two miles south-east of Newport. The building is oblong, measuring internally 66 feet 8 inches from east to west by 19 feet 4 inches, with an aisle, 17 feet 8 inches by 16 feet 2 inches, projecting on the north. The walls stand almost complete to the wall-head but are so densely covered with ivy that no details are visible. The aisle and the east end have at one time been fitted with galleries. The opening into the former is a wide semi-circular arch with imposts, probably dating from the late 16th or early 17th century.
TOMBSTONES.
(1) A stone lying half buried within the chancel has, in the upper part, a death's head within a roundel, and below a shield bearing: A fess between two mascles in chief and a trefoil slipped in base (en.2).
(2) Outside of the church, on the south, is a stone, measuring 6 feet 11 inches by 3 feet 4 inches, with a shield flanked by the initials D.W. for David Wilson, surmounted by a wreath and bearing: A saltire between three cinquefoils and a boar's head erased in base.
(3) A third stone, measuring 3 feet 2 inches by 6 feet 5 inches, lies to the east of (2). It bears the initials G.T. and E.S. flanking a shield parted per pale: dexter, a rose, on a chief three hearts; sinister, a cinquefoil, on a chief three roses.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 26 May 1927.
(1) “The parish church of St. Philans or Forgun, that was one of the kirks of the priory of St. Andrews." -Sibbald's History of Fife (ed. 1803), pp. 418-19). (2) The stone is referred to in the county list as that of Mrs. Catherine Traill, 1578, but the Traill arms bear a chevron, &c.
Photographic Survey (1986)
Recording of gravestones in the churchyard of St Fillans, Forgan, Fife by Mrs Betty Willsher in 1986.
