stirling-1963-vol-1/05_203

Transcription

No. 165 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 168
end-wall of the building and the NE. arc of the inner face
of the enclosing wall there are two short stretches of wall
of unknown thickness. The more northerly springs from
an unbonded junction with the inner face of the enclos-
ing wall and runs SW. for a distance of 5 ft. to meet the
outer face of the NE. wall of the building. This joint,
too, appears to be unbonded. The other stretch, parallel
to the former, also abuts upon, but does not unite with,
the inner face of the enclosing wall; but it appears to stop
about 1 ft. 6 in. or 2 ft. short of the building. The building
lies wholly within the enclosing wall, and it is impossible
to say whether the two are contemporary. The interior
of the building is featureless.
A curved depression of varying width and depth runs
W. and SW. for a distance of some 20 ft. from the broken
entrance in the E. arc of the enclosing wall. It probably
represents another trace of the recent work of investiga-
tion mentioned above, but is now masked with vegetation
and provides no information.
The nature of the site and the character of the wall
together imply that the structure is not a fortification
such as a dun or a castle. But these features, coupled with
the presence of the word "cashel" in the names of the
promontory and of dwellings in the vicinity, suggest
strongly that the structure is, in fact, a cashel - a religious
establishment of Dark Age date. ¹ In 1724 Alexander
Graham of Duchray, described ² the ruins as lying on a
point of land "called Cashel". The walls then stood to a
height of nine or ten feet. In the following year another
account ³ added that "in the inside is the ruins of two
houses which seem to be joined with sloping roofs to
each side" of the enclosing wall.

NS 393931 -- N xiii ("Castle, ruins of") -- 19 May 1953

165. Burial Ground, Stronmacnair. About 170 yds. S.
of the house at Stronmacnair, and close to the right bank
of the burn that here forms the county boundary, there
is a small, rectangular, drystone enclosure, evidently of
no great age. Both within this and outside it, but within
an outer and much older enclosure of boulders and turf
measuring about 30 yds. by 21 yds., there are numerous
traces of burials. These include a squared but uninscribed
recumbent slab, an unshaped slab, and some small
upright stones, two of which evidently mark the head
and foot of a child's grave only 4 ft. 6 in. long. A group
of others seem to mark the outline of a lair.

NN 424024 -- N V -- 2 May 1956

166. Garrison Graveyard, Inversnaid. Immediately
behind the schoolhouse at Inversnaid, on the steep slope
that descends from the Garrison Farm to the Snaid
Water, there is a small graveyard enclosed by an iron
fence. Within the fence can be seen an original turf
boundary-dyke of very slight dimensions. A 19th-century
tombstone, erected by a former Duke of Montrose,
commemorates the non-commissioned officers and men
of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th,
19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 31st and 43rd Regiments who
died while on duty at Inversnaid Garrison (No. 225)
between 1721 and 1796. At least seventeen contemporary
headstones were counted; these are all very small and
show little attempt at shaping. Many are heavily turfed
over. Only one, which also bears traces of an illegible
inscription, has a rounded top with shoulders. The sole
legible epitaph reads JANE YE WIFE OF / JOHN
[H] YETT OF / YE BUFFS DIED / MARCH YE 4 / 1750
AGED 37.

NN 348095 -- N ii (unnoted) -- 28 July 1957

167. Parish Church and Graveyard, Balfron.
Though the parish church was rebuilt in 1832 ⁴ and lacks
architectural interest, a relic of earlier times may be seen
in the graveyard in the shape of a pre-Reformation
tombstone. Though now recumbent, this was probably
intended to stand erect as the surface of the lowermost
part of the stone, 1 ft. 7 in. in length, is slightly higher
than the remainder, as if preparation for the carving of
the design had ceased at a line representing ground level.
The stone is 5 ft. long over an oblique fracture, 1 ft. 9 in.
broad at the head and 1 ft. 8 in. at the foot. It bears the
incised outline of a sword with straight quillons, now
very much wasted and without a pommel; the length of
the blade, which tapers, is 2 ft. 3 1/2 in., the total length is
2 ft. 10 1/2 in., and the breadth across the quillons is 10 in.
In addition there are six stones bearing legible dates
earlier than 1707, but none of them shows a name, only
initials. These dates and initials are as follows: 1686 /
IH EM; 1692 / DF IA, with a later commemoration
in 1714 of which the name is illegible; 1692 / WE AA;
[?] M MR / 1701; 1705 / WR EK; 1707 / AM IM /
IM IK, with mason's square and compasses. Of the
three that bear boars' heads, ⁵ one certainly and the
others most probably date from the 18th century.

548892 -- NS 58 NW -- 28 August 1952

168. Church, Edinbellie. The church of Edinbellie,
which is approached by a farm road leaving the Balfron-
Fintry highway at Dalfoil, has now been gutted and put
to use as a cart-shed. It is, however, a structure of con-
siderable interest, as it was the first Secession church
to be built in this district under the inspiration of the
Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, of Stirling (cf. p. 8). It was
then known as the Holm Associate Church, and its first
minister, the Rev. John Cleland, was ordained in it in
1742.
The church (Pl. 38 C) is a plain building 59 ft. 6 in.

1 P.S.A.S., lxxxv (1950-1), 79 f.
2 History (1817 ed.), 593 n.
3 Ibid., 594 n.
4 N.S.A., viii (Stirlingshire), 297.
5 For an illustration see P.S.A.S., xxxix (1904-5), 75.

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