Cousland, Chapel
Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Cousland, Chapel
Classification Chapel (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) White Dyke Chapel
Canmore ID 53333
Site Number NT36NE 13
NGR NT 37 68
NGR Description NT c. 37 68
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/53333
- Council Midlothian
- Parish Cranston
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District Midlothian
- Former County Midlothian
NT36NE 13 c. 37 68.
At the village of Cousland (NT 3768) there was a chapel dedicated to St Catherine, originally a dependent chapel of Inveresk Church, and as such was granted to Dunfermline Abbey by David I about 1128. The date when Cousland was attached to Cranston parish has not been definitely ascertained; it is said to have been at or soon after 1560. All traces of the chapel seem to have disappeared some time before the end of the 18th century, but local people of that period had recollections of a bell which had been taken away, and of a churchyard.
H Scott 1950; I B Cowan 1967
The remains noted on NT36NE 9 as those of Cousland Castle are published on OS 25" 1959 as "White Dyke Chapel", on the authority of the Ordnance Survey Name Book [ONB], quoting The Statistical Account [OSA]. It stated that the chapel belonged to the (alleged) nunnery of Cousland, and when excavations were made in the enclosure, remnants of foundations of houses and several human bones were found. It is possible that the chapel was situated close to the Castle (NT 3774 6837).
Name Book 1852.
NT 37 68 Site identified during an archaeological assessment carried out by CFA Archaeology Ltd.
Mhairi Hastie, 2006.
