Blackness Village, St Ninian's Chapel
Chapel (Medieval)(Possible)
Site Name Blackness Village, St Ninian's Chapel
Classification Chapel (Medieval)(Possible)
Canmore ID 49473
Site Number NT08SE 10
NGR NT 0528 8003
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/49473
- Council Falkirk
- Parish Bo'ness And Carriden
- Former Region Central
- Former District Falkirk
- Former County West Lothian
NT08SE 10 0528 8003
(NT 0528 8003) St. Ninian's Chapel (NR) (Site of)
OS 6"map, Linlithgowshire, 1st ed., (1856) and (1938)
St. Ninian's Chapel, which stood at the E end of Blackness village, was destroyed at the Reformation.
Name Book 1856.
Traces of the altar of St. Ninian's Chapel are still visible. Although no graveyard is known to have existed a skeleton was dug up nearby when a cottage was being built. (Since there are no cottages near NT08SE 7 it must be assumed that this is a reference to the OS siting of 1856.)
Scot Antiq 1902.
A Celtic cult figure (NT08SE 12) may have come from this site (but see NT08SE 7).
A Ross 1967.
The site of the Chapel is in the grounds of a house (the restored cottage). No remains exist.
Visited by OS (J L D) 19 January 1953.
This was destroyed at the time of the Reformation. Traces of an altar were apparently still visible in 1902. By 1953 no remains of the chapel were visible. This site is now within cottage gardens and no remains are visible.
Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 24th February 1996..
Field Visit (August 1977)
Blackness, St Ninian’s Chapel NT c. 054 801 NT08SE 7 and NT08SE 10
A pre-Reformation chapel at Blackness is recorded in a charter of 1466; the altar is said to have been still visible at the E end of the village in 1902. The location of this chapel is uncertain, but it may have stood in the vicinity of the later redoubt lying immediately to the S of Blackness Castle, where there may be seen the footings of a small oblong building aligned upon a WNW to ESE axis.
RCAHMS 1978, visited August 1977
(RCAHMS 1929, p.125)
