church and burial ground 150m SE of Cranshaws House

Heritage listing

Date Added 20/02/2009 Type Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard; church Local Authority Scottish Borders Parish Cranshaws NGR NT 68371 61670 Coordinates 368371, 661670 — The monument comprises the remains of a later medieval church located to the north-west of an associated burial ground, now disused. The monument lies on a SE-facing slope of Cranshaws Hill, at around 230m above sea level. The first known mention of the church, probably dedicated to St Ninian, dates to 1275, but excavated evidence suggests it may be an earlier foundation. Described as ruinous in 1660, the new parish church 850m to the east replaced it in 1739. The church survives as a single-cell rectangular structure that measures 19.5m east-west by 5m transversely. A 3m length of the E gable, of partially reconstructed rubble masonry, stands to a height in excess of 3m and 1m wide. Elsewhere piles of loose rubble about 1m in width and standing to a height of 0.5m mark the foundations. The foundations are less well preserved and discontinuous in the north and west of the structure. The two entrances in the southern side, identified by excavation in the 19th century, are visible as two breaks in the southern wall at its western end. A wall dividing the W end, also identified through excavation, is not now visible. The burial ground is sub-rectangular in plan and defined by a later stone plantation boundary dyke. On its southern side this cuts into the raised area of the burial ground and in the NW corner it crosses a corner of the church foundations. A number of burials, some marked by upstanding gravestones, survive within the burial ground. Twelve sculptured stones were noted in 1925, including a figure in Jacobean dress. A portion of greywacke basin, previously noted within the boundary

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.