Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 38 on 11/04/2008.

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Religious wonders of the south west

John Hannavy explores historic churches, abbeys and cathedrals in Scotland's south west.

After exploring the north east of Scotland last issue, this group of churches, abbeys, priories and friaries are all to be found in the south west, in the lush countryside of Dumfries and Galloway, an area now known to have been the location of some of the country’s earliest Christian settlements.

This was a dangerous place to live in medieval times – being so close to England, and therefore being raided so often during the turbulent wars – that the area’s many fine medieval buildings all suffered considerably.

So much of the area’s medieval heritage is still underground, that archaeological digs are a common sight, especially at Whithorn, where new information on the earliest years of religion in Scotland is being gleaned with every new excavation.

It was probably in the early years of the fifth century that St Ninian arrived in Galloway and established his first bishopric at Whithorn. The earliest traces of Christianity in this part of Scotland can be seen in inscriptions on two stones dating from that period which were rediscovered in the 19th century being used as gateposts, and are now in the glass-fronted porch of the chapel Kirkmadrine – a Victorian burial chapel in mock-Romanesque style built on medieval foundations. A third inscribed stone from the period survives at Whithorn.

The remains of Whithorn Cathedral Priory today comprise the shell of the simple nave of the medieval church, and the foundations of the monastic ranges, all in an austere style which belies.....

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By John Hannavy

Section : Scotland Churches

Page number : 18