Channelkirk Church

NT45SE 8 4814 5450.

(NT 4814 5450) Cist found AD 1897 (NAT)

OS 6" map (1970)

A newspaper cutting describes the find of a cist on 5th March 1897, when digging a grave 2 yds to the SW of the SW corner of Channelkirk church. "Instead of a coffin, rude slabs of stone had been employed to surround the corpse. Two small pieces were found on the inner side of the larger stones, supporting each side of the head, and evidently intended to keep it in its normal position. No stone was found above or below, with the exception of two or three small bits laid above the head. The earth immediately surrounding the remains was of quite a different kind from the natural soil. The grave was about six feet deep. (Allan points out that originally it could only have been two or three feet below ground level as the ground had been levelled up considerably during church renovations and rebuildings.) A very peculiar feature was the slanting way in which the body had been laid. The head seemed to have rested at least twenty inches above the level of the feet. The lair was due east and west in the usual way. The mere semblance of a skull was visible, and sensibly indicated a person of full-grown stature. It crumbled away on exposure to air. The stones exhumed are of a rude unprepared description, and bear the appearance of having been chosen simply because they lay readiest to hand."

In 1900, the stones of the cist were lying against the wall dividing the manse grounds from the cemetery. Allan suggests that this may have been a cist similar to that (short cist) at Carfrae (NT55NW 15), "but owing to the ground around it having been disturbed, it was impossible to trace the likeness with any certainty". (More likely, this was an Early Christian long cist.)

A Allan 1900

Listed by Craw.

J H Craw 1923