<< Our Photo Pages >> Kirkmadrine Church Stones - Early Christian Sculptured Stone in Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway
Submitted by Anonymous on Saturday, 16 October 2004 Page Views: 14194
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Kirkmadrine Church Stones Alternative Name: Toskerton Old Parish Church; South Carnweil KirkCountry: Scotland County: Dumfries and Galloway Type: Early Christian Sculptured Stone
Nearest Town: Stranraer
Map Ref: NX0801448389
Latitude: 54.793539N Longitude: 4.987833W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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I have visited· I would like to visit
Anne T visited on 17th Jun 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4 Kirkmadrine Old Church & Early Christian Stones: Now this site I was so looking forward to seeing, but in some ways it was the most disappointing.
As we arrived at the foot of the grassy lane to the church, the heavens opened, and my, did it pour. Thankfully, we were sheltered to some extent by the trees on either side of the lane. Eventually, we came to the gate into the churchyard, with the cross on a mound to our right, and the church to our left.
The stones were displayed behind glass at the exterior western end of the church. To even see the stones we had to wipe the rain from the glass with a handkerchief. Unfortunately, raindrops had leaked behind the glass, affecting the clarity of our view of the stones. In addition, the light at this time of evening (around 5pm) was bouncing off the glass, and trying to photograph the most impressive, and oldest, stone at the back left hand side (northern) side of the display proved virtually impossible, despite the UV filter, because the reflections of the trees in the glass were too strong. I tried photographing from various angles, but to no real effect.
I went away really disappointed, as these stones are really impressive and I wanted to see more. I did contact Canmore with a photograph a week ago (today is 26th June) but have had no reply apart from an automatic acknowledgement of receiving my message.
XorA have visited here
The oldest is a pillar stone dating from the 5th Century. All the stones were found in the immediate vicinity suggesting it was an early Christian cemetery.
More information can be found on Canmore ID 60441 which adds: "This church, which served the medieval parish of Toskerton, stood within its walled burial-ground on a low rise 410m S of South Cairnweil farmsteading. The site is (now) occupied by a burial-aisle of the MacTaggarts of Ardwell which incorporates some earlier masonry, most noticeably at the E end, and may preserve the ground-plan of the former church (the aisle measures 12.7m by 5.6m within walls 0.9m thick). Three Early Christian inscribed stones, and five cross-fragments which range in date from the 8th to the 12th century, found on, or near, the site, are displayed in the porch at the W end of the aisle."
The Canmore record also contains descriptions of the stones displayed here and further information can be found at Historic Environment Scotland: Kirkmadrine.
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