Kilmun, St Munn's Church, Argyll Mausoleum
Mausoleum (18th Century)
Site Name Kilmun, St Munn's Church, Argyll Mausoleum
Classification Mausoleum (18th Century)
Canmore ID 250643
Site Number NS18SE 1.04
NGR NS 16603 82072
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/250643
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Dunoon And Kilmun
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
INVENTORY OF GRAVEYARD AND CEMETERY SITES IN SCOTLAND REFERENCE:
N.B. This reference applies collectively to NS18SE 1.02, NS18SE 1.04, NS18SE 1.05, NS18SE 63.00, NS18SE 63.01, NS18SE 63.02
Address: St Munn's Church Churchyard, Douglas of Glenfinart Mausoleum, Argyll Mausoleum, and Kilmun Cemetery and Extensions, Kilmun
Postcode: PA23 8SE
Status: Churchyard: Closed for burials but maintained; Cemetery: In current use for burials
Size: Churchyard: 0.33 hectares, 0.82 acres; Cemetery: 0.34 hectares, 0.84 acres; Cemetery Extension (63.01): 0.52 hectares, 1.28 acres; Cemetery Extension (63.02): 0.18 hectares, 0.45 acres
TOIDs:
Number of gravestones: 1631
Earliest gravestone: 1670
Most recent gravestone: Not known
Description: Burial ground associated with a church, mausolea, cemetery with watch tower and cemetery extensions.
Data Sources: OS MasterMap checked 23 September 2005; Graveyard Recording Form dated 13 February 2003
Field Visit (1966)
This building is attached to Kilmun Church. At one end of the mausoleum, within a canopied niche, are the full-length effigies of Sir Donald Campbell of Lochawe, 1st Lord Campbell, d. 1453, and his first wife Marjorie Stewart, daughter of the Duke of Albany. Sir Duncan founded the collegiate church of Kilmun in 1442, the ruined tower of which stands adjacent to the present building. The effigies are executed in a warm yellowish freestone and are in a remarkable state of preservation, the detailing of Sir Duncan's armour and of his wife's costume being nearly as fresh as when it left the mason's hands. The underside of the effigies however has been crudely cut, no doubt as the result of their removal from an earlier site to their present one, when the mausoleum was reconstructed in the late 18th century.
H B Millar and J Kirkhope 1966
Field Visit (April 1989)
This church occupies the summit of a slight knoll about 10m above the NE shore of the Holy Loch, 0.7m from the present head of the loch and bounded on the E by the gorge of the Allt na Sruthlaig and on the N by the steep slope of Kilmun Hill. The existing building of 1841 occupies the site of a medieval parish church, endowed as a collegiate church in 1442 by Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochawe, and a W tower of that period, with slight remains of the adjacent walls of the nave, stands 4m to the W. The mausoleum of the Campbell Dukes of Argyll, rebuilt in 1795-6, occupies the NE re-entrant angle of the church.
RCAHMS 1992, visited April 1989
[see RCAHMS 1992 No. 80 for a detailed description of the history of the site, the present church, the Argyll mausoleum, and 67 funerary monuments of medieval and post-reformation date]
Watching Brief (5 June 2013 - 14 June 2013)
NS16600 82061 A watching brief was undertaken, 5 June – 14 October 2013, during renovation works on the Argyll Mausoleum and Kilmun Parish Church. The majority of the deposits revealed around the buildings consisted of made ground dating to the late 18th and 19th century. A spread of material was recorded that appears to be the made ground, built up, as documented, to protect the underlying burials before the present Parish Church of 1841 was constructed. Cut through this material was a single possible grave cut; this was not excavated. The foundation cut for the Argyll Mausoleum, built between 1795 and 1796, was revealed and a portion of the stepped stone foundation was also recorded. Probable builder’s rubbish, consisting of a layer of mortar and mixed stone and slate waste, presumably derived from the construction of the latest Parish Church, was also recorded.
Archive: RCAHMS
Funder: Argyll Mausoleum Ltd
Clare Ellis, Argyll Archaeology, 2013
(Source: DES)
