KILMARTIN GRAVEYARD DALRIADA PROJECT DESK BASED ASSESSMENT May 2009 Kilmartin House Museum Argyll, PA31 8RQ Tel: 01546 510 278 [email protected] Scottish Charity SC02274 Dunadd Historic Gravestones Group Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Desk Based Survey Methodology 1 2.1 Previous Work 1 2.2 Other Sources Searched 1 3. Kilmartin Parish Church 2 3.1 Church History 2 3.1.1 A list of Vicars, Rectors and Ministers of Kilmartin 3 3.2. Church Description 6 3.3. Graveyard Description 7 3.3.1 Mausoleum Description 7 3.3.2 Funerary Monuments and other Carved Stones 8 3.3.2.1 Early Christian 8 3.3.2.2 Medieval Grave slabs 9 3.3.2.3 Effigies 15 3.3.2.4 Tomb-chests 16 3.3.2.5 Crosses 16 3.3.2.6 Post-Reformation 17 4. List of Archive material held by National Monuments Record of Scotland 21 5. List of names and places on Liars within the old Section of Kilmartin Churchyard 31 6. References 85 Appendix 1: Gravestone Images ii 1. Introduction In January 2009 Kilmartin House Museum conducted a Desk Based Survey (DBA) on the church and graveyard of Kilmartin. The aim of the report was to locate and compile all known information on the church with particular reference to the ‘old’ graveyard. The collated information will to be used as a basis for the survey and recording of the gravestones within the graveyard. The project was undertaken in partnership with the Dunadd Historic Graveyard Group, Historic Scotland, the Church of Scotland and Argyll and Bute District Council. The project is part of the Dalraida Project which is the major funder. This report contains printed copies of all information collected during the course of the project. 2. Desk Based Survey Methodology 2.1 Previous Work The historic graveyard of Kilmartin has aroused the interest of some of the earliest Scottish antiquarians, some of whom made descriptions and drawings following their observations (Graham 1860, Drummond 1877). A survey of many of the medieval grave slabs and some post reformation graves stones was undertaken by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and their work was included in their Inventory for Argyll (RCHAMS 1992). Many of the stones have also appereared within publications on the early Christain monuments (Fisher) and later medieval graves (Bannerman and Steel). Local historians did some exhaustive work on recording the names and places on the grave stones in the cemetery, and particular mention must go to Alan Begg who recorded inscriptions between 1988 and 1991. The relevant work within these various publications has been incorporated into the text, as has the transcribed survey undertaken by Alan Begg. Several works on the graveyard have periodically appeared within the ‘Kist’ the the journal of the Natural History and Antiquarian Society of Mid Argyll, and contains articles dating back to 1971. All volumes of this were searched for information on Kilmartin church and graveyard. 2.2 Other Sources Searched The National Monuments Record of Scotland based in Edinburgh and maintained by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, holds plans, photographs and drawings relating to the graveyard and a list of the relevant archive is reproduced below. This archive was visited and examined and where possible items were cross referenced. This is important as most of the previous surveys have assigned the individual graves a different identification number. The end result is that one individual gravestone or grave slab can have a series of different identification numbers, and not all interested bodies are aware of each others numbers, or indeed, that they exist. Part of the work of this project has been to record any previous numbers assigned to the graves. The importance of being able to determine all numbers is clear in terms of data management and in terms of future site management and research. This research work is by no means exhaustive and other sources and documents will have to be searched, but it is intended this work will be a sound basis for future research. Of particular relevance to future researchers will be church records with particular reference to the Old Parochail Registers of Scotland. The General Register Office for Scotland holds the following for Kilmartin: Births 1747-1819, Marriages 1746-1819 (ref: 521/1), Births 1820-1854 and Marriages 1820-1854 (ref: 521/2). 1 3. Kilmartin Parish Church Map Reference: NR 8344 9885 Church: NMRS Number: NR89NW 85, Historic Building No. 11490, B Listed by Historic Scotland 20/07/1971 Graveyard: NMRS Number: NR89NW 8, Lapidarium Historic Building No. 11491, B Listed by Historic Scotland 20/07/1971 3.1 Church History The church occupies a spur projecting from the gravel terrace on the E side of Kilmartin Glen, overlooking several of the Bronze Age burial-cairns in the valley, and 300m SSW of Kilmartin Castle. The former manse, built in 1789 and subsequently much altered and now Kilmartin House Museum, stands immediately to the NW, with the glebe in the valley to the W. No evidence of the early church can be seen, but the presence of three early Christian garve markers in the churchyard (Nos 1-3 below), suggest an ecclesiastical structure before the 9 th century AD. The free standing cross (No. 4 below), probably dating to the 10 th century AD, is another indication of the presence of an early structure. The church serves a parish extending some 20km from Loch Crinan along the E shore of Loch Craignish to the head of Gleann Domhain, and whose N part is bounded for 7km by the NW shore of Loch Awe. This area seems to correspond with the barony of Ardskeodnish, held from the late 13th century by the Campbells of Lochawe, and an agreement referring to the advowson of the church was made between two members of the family in 1323, while the patronage remained in their hands in the post-Reformation period. The names of individual parsons and vicars are recorded from 1361 and 1304 respectively, and some of them were members of the Campbell family. The parsonage was also a prebend of the cathedral church of Argyll from 1443 or earlier. In the almost total absence of inscriptions on monuments of the Loch Awe school, the social context of the remarkable collection of grave slabs is uncertain, but it was recorded that Sir Collin Campbell of Glenorchy was ‘honorablie bureit in the Kirk of Kilmertyne’ in l480. The chapel of Kilmahumaig with its attached lands was included in the parish until 1651, and the teinds of the chapel of ‘Kilbryde at Lochgersyde’ were held by the minister in 1617, while a detached block of land lying E of Loch Gair and Loch Glashan, adjoining Kilbride, appears also to have been part of Kilmartin parish until 1651. A chaplainry at the Lady altar in the parish church itself was endowed with lands and these, together with the church’s own property, were secularised in the late 16th century, forming the nucleus of the later Kilmartin estate. In 1793 it was stated that: ‘The church was built in the year 1601. The walls are strong, but the plan is incommodious. It is a long narrow stripe, and has had no reparation or improvement since it was built, except giving it a new roof. The pulpit ... is an old Gothic structure of stones and lime, about 7 feet (2.lm) from the level of the floor, and is coeval with the church’. No more is known of this building, which was probably an alteration of the medieval church rather than a completely new one, but it dated from the period when Mr Neil Campbell, minister of Kilmartin, was also bishop of Argyll (infra). However, surviving documents indicate the pressure for space in the churchyard, where many medieval monuments remained in use. In 1677 Neil Campbell, sometime of Kilmartin, sold to his namesake, now of Duntrune, ‘the two lairs belonging to me and my predicessors quich lyes at the uper end of the ould kirk ... with ane lech s: one chist (low stone (tomb-) chest)’. In 1731 there was a court-case between Donald MacCallum (Malcolm) of Poltalloch and Alexander MacIsaac, miller at Slockavullin, over the ownership of ‘through-stanes’ (recumbent grave-slabs), and in 1767 Alexander Malcolm sued the same MacIsaac, who was ordered to remove inscriptions added by him to several medieval grave-slabs. Similar inscribed family names of 18th- and early 19th-century date are common on many of the slabs described below. 2 An estimate of £331 for rebuilding the church was submitted in 1798 by Dugald Mclsaac, a local builder, and George Malcolm, brother of the principal heritor, undertook to supervise it, but the work was still incomplete in March 1801. However, Neil Malcolm was invited to give instructions for the erecting of a family pew shortly thereafter. Several plans for a new building were submitted in 1833, and that selected was by J G Davis, to contain 550 sittings at an estimated cost of £900. Neil Malcolm of Poltalloch offered to pay for the tower, estimated to cost a further £200, on condition that he had exclusive use of the seats in the tower, but the final cost of the building, which was opened in 1835, exceeded £1300. The alteration of the interior, first proposed in 1896, was begun three years later to plans by James Edgar, ‘architect’, clerk of works on the Poltalloch estate, and completed in 1900 at a cost of £758.’ The charge was united with that of Kilmichael Glassary in 1982 (RCHAMS 1992) 3.1.1 A list of Vicars, Rectors and Ministers of Kilmartin 1414 JOHN CAMPBELL ‘In 1414 Sir John Campbell, the brother of Sir Duncan Campbell Lord of Lochow, was rector of the Church of St Martin’ (Argyle Charters) 1498 GILBERT M’KINCAIRDAY ‘In 1498, Gilbert M’ Kincairdy was vicar of Kilmartin.