Lempitlaw Church, Graveyard

A slight hollow in the Lempitlaw burial ground, measuring 19m by 6m, is all that remains of the church that once stood here, probably until the end of the eighteenth century. Although the first historical mention of the church was made in the twelfth century, in a document granting the church to the Holy Trinity of Soutra, a hogback tombstone in the burial ground suggests that this is a religious site of greater antiquity.

Hogback tombstones are blocks of stone, worked into a distinctive shape, which have a flat base and bowed appearance to the upper surfaces. They are thought to have been shaped this way to resemble buildings, and the Lempitlaw example has carved roofing details, thought to represent thatch. This type of monument originated in northen England in the tenth century.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

Lempitlaw, Roxburghshire, tegulated coped gravestone

Measurements: L 1.78m, W 0.42m tapering to 0.35m, H 0.26m tapering to 0.23m

Stone type: red sandstone

Place of discovery: NT 78835 32788

Present location: lying at the east end of the old graveyard of Lempitlaw.

Evidence for discovery: first noted, half buried, in 1932 by RCAHMS. It was excavated by James Lang and Graham Ritchie in 1969, when ploughmarks were noted along one side, which suggested that the stone may have been brought from elsewhere. A low wooden kerb surrounds the stone, with a gravel filling.

Present condition: damaged and worn.

Description

Beneath the damaged ridge on the north side of the monument are three rows of rectangular tegulae carved in relief, above a plain vertical side. The south side is very weathered and no trace of carving survives, but the ‘ploughmarks’ look more like natural striations in the sandstone.

Date range: early twelfth century.

Primary references: RCAHMS 1956, no 971; Lang 1974, 228.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2019

NT73SE 1 78810 32780

(Centred: NT 7881 3278) Church (NR) (Site of): Burial Ground.

OS 25"map, Roxburghshire, (1921).

Graveyard and Church Site, Lempitlaw. Within the old churchyard at the E end of the hamlet of Lempitlaw there lies a coped, hog-backed stone, partly buried. It measures about 5ft 8in in length and bears three rows of shingle ornament on its exposed surface. The same churchyard contains a series of small headstones, the style of which suggest dates between 1680 and 1750; one is dated 1699, and an adjoining one of similar type 1720. It is understood that dates in the 17th century were legible on one or two other in past years, when they were less badly weathered than at present.

Lempitlaw was formerly a separate parish, and in the second quarter of the 13th century Richard Gernun granted the church to Holy Trinity of Soltre (OPS 1851-5). Nothing, however, has survived of the fabric of the parish church, which stood in this churchyard.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 3 July 1932, 16 October 1944.

No trace of the hog-backed stone nor any local knowledge of it were found.

In the centre of the burial-ground is a vague, rectangular hollow measuring 19.0m NE-SW by 6.0m transversely, which probably defines the outline of the old church.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 30 June 1966.