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Kirknewton, Old Parish Church And Churchyard
Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Churchyard (Medieval), Hogback Stone (Early Medieval)
Site Name Kirknewton, Old Parish Church And Churchyard
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Churchyard (Medieval), Hogback Stone (Early Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Kirkyard
Canmore ID 50341
Site Number NT16NW 3
NGR NT 1141 6693
NGR Description NT 1141 6693 and NT 1142 6693
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/50341
- Council West Lothian
- Parish Kirknewton (West Lothian)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District West Lothian
- Former County Midlothian
KIRKNEWTON
More enclosed than many West Lothian villages: Main Street is narrow and winding, with a mixture of single- and two-storey cottages of mainly 19th century. Dunallan, 1840, has a curious mixture of a Georgian door framed by Tudor hood-moulds. Kirkyard, on its rolling sloping site, has the 1662 burial enclosure to the Campbell Maconachies of Meadowbank (now Kirknewton House): another, dignified by an elaborate baroque broken-pedimented door, is to the Cullens; William Cullen (d.1790) - celebrated physician, botanist and philosopher - and Lord (Robert) Cullen (d.1810) - eminent judge, elegant scholar and accomplished gentleman. Some delightful 18th-century headstones - including that to James Smith, smith of Kirknewton, bearing his awl, adze and vice.
Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
Kirknewton, Midlothian, hogback gravestone
Measurements: L 1.70m, W 0.46m tapering to 0.38m, H 0.33m tapering to 0.24m
Stone type: grey sandstone
Place of discovery: NT 1141 6693
Present location: unknown.
Evidence for discovery: first recorded by Thomas Ross in 1904, lying south of the ruined church. It appeared to have been re-used for a later burial, with a plain slab set upright at either end. Tom E Gray photographed it in 1958 and James Lang recorded it around 1970, by which time the secondary upright slabs had been removed. The hogback itself was removed or buried sometime in the late twentieth century.
Present condition: worn and the ends damaged.
Description
The stone was carved with three rows of rectangular tegulae on either side of its ridge, with a strip of pellet moulding beneath them and a plain basal panel. The ends were damaged but the broader end had two rows of tegulae.
Date range: late eleventh or twelfth century.
Primary references: Ross 1904, 425; Lang 1974, 227.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019
NT16NW 3 1141 6693 to 1142 6693
(NT 1142 6694) Church (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map (1908)
The remains of the old parish church of Kirknewton, deserted when East Calder and Kirknewton parishes were combined in 1750, consist of a remnant of wall 36' long, 8 1/2' high and 37 1/2" thick. This wall forms the east side of the enclosed tombs, used from 1662 till 1790, by the Campbell Macnochies of Meadowbank. The site of the choir of the old church is occupied by the tomb of the Cullens of Ormiston.
A Reid 1906
There is a hog-backed stone in the churchyard at Kirknewton,'at a distance of about 6 yards south from the west end of the ruins of the ancient Norman Church of Kirknewton. The stone is believed to be in its original position, but the cross stones seen at either end are not supposed to be connected with it.'
T Ross 1904
The remains of this church (at NT 1141 6693) are as described by Reid although the wall mentioned is only 7.8m long.
No further information obtained re date of church. The tomb of the 'Cullens of Ormiston' is at NT 1143 6694. The hog-backed stone is at NT 1142 6693.
Visited by OS (JTT) 18 August 1965
Kirknewton church, also known as Newton was erected with a prebend of the Collegiate church of St Giles in 1472.
I B Cowan 1967.
Field Visit (9 December 1927)
Hog-backed Tombstone, Kirknewton Churchyard.
This fine monument lies in the churchyard at the site of the old parish church of Kirknewton. The monument is believed to occupy its original position, but the crossstones at the ends of the hog-back have obviously been set up at a later date. The monument measures 5 feet 7 ½ inches in length, 18 ¼ inches wide at the base of the west end and 14 ½ inches wide at the base of the east end. It is very slightly arched, with an average height of about 13 inches, in the line of its length. The ridge is not in the centre of the sloping sides, but both sides are ornamented with three rows of scales, the broadest or south side having also a bar of pearl ornament along the top of the upright base. The gabled west end has two rows of scale ornament, but the east end is somewhat broken.
Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xxxviii (1903-4), p.425.
RCAHMS 1929, visited 9 December 1927.
Desk Based Assessment (20 November 2013)
An Historic Scotland Certificate of Exclusion from Schedule document dated 14 March 2013 specifies the hog-backed monument within the graveyard.
Information from RCAHMS (JRS) 20 November 2013.
