stirling-1963-vol-1/05_193

Transcription

No. 147 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 149
square, which could be entered by a door in its E. side
and served as a burial-vault. This base, which is
ornamented with urns and antefixes, supports a some-
what squat obelisk founded on four low arches. The total
height of the monument is about 25 ft., and it has been
painted. An inscription on the S. face commemorates
Captain John Paterson, of the East India Company's
service, the last survivor of the family of John Paterson
of Carron, and his brothers and sisters. In the frieze
above the inscription are the words ERECTED /
MDCCCXXVII, and above the cornice the words
KOIMHΣATO XALKEON YỻNON "He slept the brazen
sleep", i.e. the sleep of death). This quotation, ¹ though
it relates to the death of a hero in hand-to-hand con-
flict, may possibly have been regarded as appropriate
here because the tomb was made of metal. A third iron
obelisk-monument, which finishes in an urn, com-
memorates George Smith, who died in 1833; the lower
part incorporates four granite panels, one of which
bears the inscription.

856822 -- NS 88 SE ("Ch.") -- 6 October 1954

147. Church Site and Graveyard, Dunipace. The
old graveyard of Dunipace, with the site of the former
parish church, lies within an enclosing drystone wall
just E. and N. respectively of the two "Hills of Dunipace"
(No. 575). No trace of the church survives, but it was
"a very plain building, with galleries in front and
ends, affording accommodation for 350 sitters -- From
several appearances of arches in its walls, it probably
had originally several aisles attached to it." ² It was
demolished in 1835. ³ In the graveyard two small 17th-
century headstones were noted, and also two un-
inscribed stones which may well be contemporary with
them as they are of similar size and shape. One of the

[Handwritten in margin] Mrs Mitchell
reports 20 stones
a late 17thc date

inscribed stones bears the incised date and initials
1650 / IC MR, and the other the initials CG in relief
on a sunk panel with 1652 incised below. There are
many recumbent slabs, now all illegible or turfed over,
and some of these may well date from before 1707. In
addition to the tombstones, there also stands in the
centre of the graveyard what seems to be the pedestal of
a cross, the remainder of which has vanished. It is
quadrangular on plan, is 1 ft. 6 in. high, and shows a
slight batter; the top is 1 ft. 6 in. square and contains a
socket 1 ft. 1/2 in. long by 10 in. wide and 7 in. deep.
By the entrance to the graveyard there is a watch-
house, but it is featureless.

837817 -- NS 88 SW ("Church, site of")
24 June 1954

148. Parish Church, Dunipace. This church stands
about a mile E. of Dunipace, on the road to Larbert
and opposite Denovan House. It superseded the older
church (cf. No. 147) in 1834 and exemplifies the same
architectural fashions as are to be seen at Kilsyth (No.
154). Lennoxtown (No. 156) and elsewhere. It is an
oblong building measuring externally 57 ft. 6 in. by
39 ft. exclusive of the buttresses at the corners; at the W.
end a tower 16 ft. 6 in. wide projects a further 15 ft. 6 in.,
and a low outshot at the E. end contains a vestry. The
masonry is ashlar, and the yellowish freestone has now
weathered to a dark greenish grey. Each side shows three
large pointed windows with Gothic tracery and hood-
moulds, and buttresses between them; in the E. gable
there are two smaller windows, with a decorated circular
light above; and at the W. end a single pointed light on
each side of the tower. The wall-heads finish in broad
moulded bands, which return on the gables, and at the
corners diagonal buttresses bear high, ornate finials.
The tower is divided by string-courses into three stages.
the lowermost containing the entrance on the N. side
and corresponding blind doorways on the W. and S.
All these have Tudor arches. The stage above shows a
traceried single-light window on each free side, and the
third stage, which contains the bell-chamber, three
louvred lights a side. Round the top of the tower runs
ornate, pierced crenellation, and the buttresses, like
those on the body of the church, bear high finials. The
seating in the interior is arranged to face a pulpit at the
E. end; a gallery, reached by a stone stair in the lowest
stage of the tower, runs across the W. end, and there is a
flat plaster ceiling. The bell-chamber is approached by
a small newel-stair rising from gallery level in the SE.
corner of the tower.

820832 -- NS 88 SW -- 24 June 1954

149. Parish Church, Denny. The parish of Denny was
disjoined from Falkirk in 1601, ⁴ but nothing of the
structure of a church of that period survives apart from
a sundial now at Hallhouse (No. 359). The present
church was built in 1813,⁵ but it has been so much
altered that it is no longer typical of its period in all
respects. In particular, it was "cleaned and beautified
internally, in 1838", ⁶ the tower was added during the
19th century, and in 1928 a chancel was added at the
W. end, and the seating was arranged to face westwards. ⁷
Originally the pulpit was on the S. side and the seating
conformed; there were galleries on E., N. and W.
As it stands, the church is an uninteresting Gothic
building externally similar to other contemporary
churches in the county; it is built of squared rubble with
backset margins and quoins, and measures 58 ft. by
45 ft. 6 in. over walls 2 ft. 6 in. thick. The walls rise from
a low plinth to a moulded eaves-course continued as a
flat string across the ends, though interrupted on the E.
end by the tower; the gables finish in plain tabling and

1 Homer, Il., xi, 241.
2 N.S.A., viii (Stirlingshire), 389.
3 Ordnance Survey Name Book, Dunipace parish, 49.
4 Fasti, iv, 303.
5 N.S.A., viii (Stirlingshire), 122.
6 Ibid., 132.
7 Information from the Rev. R. G. Lawrie.

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