Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Kirriemuir, High Street, Old Parish Church
Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (13th Century), Church (18th Century) (1786)-(1788), Churchyard (Medieval), Human Remains (Period Unassigned), War Memorial (20th Century)
Site Name Kirriemuir, High Street, Old Parish Church
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (13th Century), Church (18th Century) (1786)-(1788), Churchyard (Medieval), Human Remains (Period Unassigned), War Memorial (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Kirriemuir, Bank Street, The Barony Parish Church. Kirriemuir Old Parish Church War Memorial
Canmore ID 32313
Site Number NO35SE 3
NGR NO 38613 53918
NGR Description Centred on NO 38613 53918
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/32313
- Council Angus
- Parish Kirriemuir
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Angus
- Former County Angus
Kirriemuir
All of the 18 carved stones and fragments came from the site of the old parish church and churchyard in Kirriemuir, and they testify to the existence in the early medieval period of a strong local school of sculpture. The distinctive features of its cross-slabs include crosses filled with bold interlace or diagonal key pattern, crosses with six-cord rings, figures wearing elaborately folded garments and a chair with bold zoomorphic terminals. Pictish symbols appear on two of the cross-slabs. These carved stones are now in the Meffan Museum and Gallery in Forfar (Canmore 194389), except for no 18 which is in the Gateway Museum in the old Town House in Kirriemuir (Canmore 32291).
Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 226-8, 258-61; RCAHMS 2003 Broadsheet 11.
A Ritchie 2019
Architect: James Playfair, 1786
EXTERNAL REFERENCE:
Scottish Records Office
GD 137/2828
Insufficient in walls, windows, doors, roof.
Repair to body of the church and N and S aisles.
Take down South wall & build it up again sufficiently. M
ake the stair within the church.
Harling.
Take up slates of the body of the Church and put new in place.
Take roof off South aisle and give it a new one.
To mend what is faults in N aisle.
Glass small windows of church and aisles.
1723
GD 137/2828
Contract for alteration and repair of the church.
The South wall is to be rebuilt and stair made wtihin the Church.
The small windows are to be glazed and the South Aisle given a new roof.
Agreement between the Heritors and George Brown.
1723
GD 16/46/63
Building of a new church and manse. 3 receipts for payment.
1787
GD 16/46/99
Repair and maintenance of Church and Manse. Papers relating to these.
1831-1870
Excavation (1995)
NO 385 539 The proposal to replace the path leading to the W side of the church with a vehicular road was preceded by an archaeological investigation of the area by Scotia Archaeology Limited. Within a trench measuring 15.5m E-W by 3m wide and a northward extension measuring 3.5m by 2.5m were uncovered six courses of a 1.25m-wide, clay-bonded, rubble wall. That wall is thought to have formed the S boundary of the churchyard before the extant church was built in 1787. To the immediate N of the wall were the lower courses of three walls, forming a U-shaped arrangement. Within the space between these walls were the disarticulated skeletons of at least 15 individuals.
Sponsor: Tayside Regional Council
R Murdoch 1995.
Excavation (1995)
NO 386 539 Preceding churchyard access improvements, an excavation carried out by Scotia Archaeology in March/April discovered one complete cross slab and a further 11 fragments. The fragments had all been re-used in the building of a wall, possibly contemporary with the present church of 1787, and all appear to have been deliberately broken.
N Atkinson 1995
Watching Brief (1998)
NO 382 548 A watching brief was undertaken on a site located in the heart of the medieval burgh and close to the Barony Church where recent work has revealed further Pictish sculptured stones. No evidence of pre-modern occupation was uncovered during the groundworks.
Sponsor: Mrs J Stewart.
G Brown 1998
Desk Based Assessment
NO35SE 3.00 Centred on NO 38613 53918
NO35SE 3.01 38644 53915 Churchyard
NO35SE 3.02 38644 53915 Cross slabs
See also NO35SE 234 Cross-slab
(NO 3860 5391) The Barony Church (NAT)
(NO 3862 5393) Cross Slab (NR)
OS 25" map, (1966)
Kirriemuir Church was gifted to Arbroath Abbey c.1211-4; it was dedicated to St Mary. The old church which was demolished in 1787 (the year in which the present church was built) is described as being c. 200' x 20', and built in the form of a cross with an aisle on the N and S. Fragments of sculptured stones were found in the foundations during demolition. One Class III stone in the churchyard is scheduled. (For other fragments, see NO35SE 20.)
A J Warden 1880-85; G Hay 1957; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.
Information from OS.
