Monument record MHG31356 - Cemetery, St. Mary's Church, Wardlaw

(NH 5495 4570) St Mary's Church (NR) (In Ruins)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)

The remains of church of former parish of Wardlaw which was incorporated in Kirkhill 1618. This church, dedicated to St Mary, was successor to NH54SW1 which is said to have been removed 1220.
The remains consist of gable against the west gable of mortuary chapel which was built in 1722. Local tradition says that the tombstones from earlier site were removed to this burial ground, Where Jolly notes numerous cup-marked stones and refers to 'a fragment of a very beautfiul cross'.
T Wallace 1911 and 1886; W Jolly 1882

What appears to be the foundations of St Mary's Church are attached to the W side of the Lovat Mausoleum, and the enclosure is now used for burials of the Frasers of Reelig. It measures 10.3m E-W by 6.6m N-S within walls 0.5m thick. The W wall is partly destroyed, and the N and S walls averaging 1.0m high are topped by a later coping, but the harled E gable is virtually intact and incorporated in the W wall of the mausoleum. According to a notice board the church was built in 1618 when the parishes were united, and there is no ground evidence to support an earlier date. The same notice, however, states that the mausoleum was built in 1634, but the date 1722 is inscribed on the belfry.
The earliest legible grave markers are of the early 17th C. No trace of cup marked stones, nor of the cross fragment. The grave yard is still in use.
Visited by OS (A A) 22 June 1975

The above descriptive information was imported from Canmore when the HER (formerly the SMR) was first digitised in 1995. There are a number of inaccuracies (see details below). <1>

Elements of the above Canmore entry not relevant to discussion of the graveyard have been removed from this record. <2>

See also:
NH54NW0004 Church
J Aitken : 09/12/02
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'Inverness District West Monumental Inscriptions', pre 1855
Monumental inscription survey completed by Alastair G Beattie & Margaret H Beattie . The survey may not include inscription information after 1855 and each inscription transcribed does not give the full details that appear on the stones, abbreviations used. Some ommissions and inacuracies may be encountered. First published 1993, reprinted 1994.
J Aitken : 20/12/02 <3>

The 1911 Wallace article, mentioned above, includes sketches and descriptions of four stones from this churchyard (nos 6 to 9). Nos. 7 to 9 are believed to date from the last quarter of the 17th century, no. 9 being notable for including a representation of the occupant in the costume of his office (Andrew McRobbie, kirk-officer of Wardlaw).
No. 6 is the earliest of the four, and consists of "a recumbent grave-slab 6 feet in length, bearing in the centre a cross sculptured in low relief, with a wheel-head ornamented with a geometric pattern of incuse triangles, the shaft rising from a calvary base of four steps. In the space on one side of the shaft, about a third of its length from the top, is a symbol resembling a pair of shears, and on the other side a book." See the PSAS article for full details. <4>

The "fragment of a very beautiful cross" mentioned in the Canmore entry, reproduced above, is in fact mentioned by Wallace writing in 1886 <5> and not by Jolly, who only mentions "numerous evidences of cupped stones". Jolly comments that many of the stones here were removed from the "very ancient" burial ground of Dumballoch. <6>.

The above mentioned "fragment of a very beautiful cross" (Wallace's stone number 6) is still in the kirkyard. It does not have as much of the head as is illustrated in <2>. The missing fragment could be under the turf. <7>