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Glencorse Reservoir, St Catherine's Chapel

Chapel (13th Century)

Site Name Glencorse Reservoir, St Catherine's Chapel

Classification Chapel (13th Century)

Canmore ID 51860

Site Number NT26SW 1

NGR NT 2158 6392

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51860

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Midlothian
  • Parish Penicuik (Midlothian)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District Midlothian
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT26SW 1 2158 6392

(NT 2158 6392) St Catherine's Chapel (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1957).

See also NT26SW 63.00.

This chapel was erected about the end of the 12th century to St Catherine (NSA 1845). Its foundations are normally covered by Glencorse Reservoir (NT26SW 63.00), but when visited in 1915, a fragment of rubble walling 10' long and 2'9" thick could be seen above the mud, and the overall internal dimensions of the oriented structure, approximately 44'9" by 20', suggested that the chapel was probably erected in the 13th century.

St Catherine's Church was annexed to Penicuick Church in 1635 (H Scott 1915), but its burial ground, 1/4 acre in extent, continued to be used till the middle of the 18th c (A Kerr 1879).

NSA 1845; A Kerr 1879; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1915.

Not visible at time of visit.

Visited by OS (RD) 3 February 1970.

Activities

Field Visit (31 July 1915)

St Catherine's Chapel.

The foundations of this structure are submerged beneath the waters of Glencorse Reservoir, but were visible on the date of visit. A fragment of rubble walling, some 10 feet long and 2 feet 9 inches thick, was seen above the mud, and the conformation of the loose debris suggested that the structure, which is orientated, was about 44 feet 9 inches long and 20 feet wide internally. These proportions suggest the 13th century as the probable date of its erection. Externally at the south-eastern angle there is a heap of boulders built round and enclosing a space measuring 3 ½ feet by 3 feet 2 inches, the major axis lying north-east and south-west.

HISTORICAL NOTE. On 3rd April 1593 the Laird of Rosslyn declared to the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale that ‘he was nane of the parochinaris of Leswaid, but ane of the parochinaris of St Katherine of the Hopes, in respect his residence was in Logan House Tower’. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xiii (1878-9), p.134.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 31 July 1915.

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