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Kirkstyle, Chapel
Architectural Fragment(S) (Period Unassigned), Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned), Grave Slab(S) (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Kirkstyle, Chapel
Classification Architectural Fragment(S) (Period Unassigned), Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Chapel (Period Unassigned), Grave Slab(S) (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Kirkstyle Churchyard; Kirkstyle Farm
Canmore ID 66557
Site Number NY16NW 10
NGR NY 1074 6969
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/66557
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Ruthwell
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Nithsdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NY16NW 10 1074 6969
For (adjacent) Kirkstyle steading, see NY16NW 64.
Kirkstyle (NY 107 696) is said to mark the site of a small chapel or preceptory of the Knights of St John, which, at the suppression of the Order, came into possession of the Murrays of Cockpool. It is not mentioned by Easson.
Two sandstone slabs, rudely carved with ornate crosses, a stylized sword, etc., said to have come originally from the churchyard of the preceptory, are in Dumfries Museum.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845 (H Duncan); G Chalmers 1890; A E Truckell 1955
The site of the churchyard, centred on NY 1074 6970, is a slightly raised area on the west side of which a short stretch of wall course is evident, probably the only remains of the churchyard wall. At the edge of this raised area, at NY 1074 6969, are the grassed over footings of a building, 13.0m E to W by 4.0m N to S, thought by Mr Byres of Kirkstyle to be the chapel. The graveslabs (14th c) were found by a Rev H Duncan at NY 1074 6970, c 1840, and removed to Mount Cedar Free Church where they lay until the early 1950s when they were taken to Ruthwell Church. They are now in Dumfries Museum (A E Truckell, curator).
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (RD) 15 November 1967
No change to previous field report.
Visited by OS (JP) 22 February 1973
There are no visible remains within the enclosed area indicated as the site of this chapel; the ground is overgrown and used by the farmer for storing silage bales. The chapel would have had an open, elevated position with undulating ground extending on all sides.
At the base of the most westerly buttress to the dutch barn (NY 1070 6969), on the N side of the farmsteading, there are two half-sections of what appear to be column-bases, or perhaps two halves of one base, which may have been removed from the site of the chapel. Both measure 0.6m in diameter and 0.13m in height, and have a rounded profile.
Two 15th-century grave-slabs, said to have been removed from the burial-ground by the Reverend Henry Duncan of Ruthwell (1774-1846), are now in Dumfries Museum (accession number DMAG 1952/36). Both are decorated with highly stylized ringed, foliated crosses with long shafts and stepped Calvary bases, together with a sword with straight quillons on the left hand side of the shaft, on the right hand side, are a coulter and sock of a plough, the other a hunting horn.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 11 October 1993.
