St Dionysius' Church (remains), Ayton

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 09/06/1971 Local Authority Scottish Borders Planning Authority Scottish Borders Parish Ayton NGR NT 92794 60953 Coordinates 392794, 660953 — Earlier to mid 12th century; extensively altered and rebuilt late 18th century; now ruinous. Roofless remains of former Ayton Church, set in graveyard, to NE of later Ayton Parish Church. W and E gables and much of S wall missing. Majority of N wall, N aisle and bell tower, and SE burial aisle in place. Originally rectangular-plan, later made T-plan with addition of N aisle. Harl-pointed sandstone rubble (squared and weathered in part); ashlar upper to bell tower; ashlar dressings throughout. Quoins; long and short surrounds to openings (blocked in part). Various burial aisles and enclosures incorporated within remains, including Fordyce family aisle to SE with large, round-arched, traceried window centred in S gable (2 sandstone mullions; single transom; round-arched heads); gravestones within; iron-railed enclosure to side. Overgrown burial aisle to NE (Alexander Skene). Various plaques and gravestones set in walls. Full-width, single storey, lean-to projection adjoining S elevation N aisle. — No longer in ecclesiastical use. A picturesque, ivy-clad group of ruins, thought to date, in part, from the 12th century, shortly after Ayton was granted to Durham Monastery. Dedicated to St Dionysius, this was originally a chapel attached to Coldingham, as Ayton was not a parish in its own right until after The Reformation. According to Binnie, as the "...first church of any size in Scotland", the building was used for a series of significant meetings between the Scots and the English, such as that which, in 1380, saw the renewal of the truce between the 2 countries. Much of what remains today is thought to date from

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.