Kirkton,old parish church 400m ESE of Kirkton Mains,Bathgate

Heritage listing

Date Added 26/04/1993 Type Ecclesiastical: church, Secular: mausoleum Local Authority West Lothian Parish Bathgate NGR NS 98998 68158 Coordinates 298998, 668158 — The monument consists of the remains of Bathgate Old Parish Church. The structure, situated in an old graveyard was granted to Holyrood Abbey by Malcolm IV (1153-65); it then passed to Newbattle Abbey, the gift being confirmed in 1372. It was abandoned in 1739. The church is a narrow, oblong building measuring 30.1m E-W by 7.9m N-S over walls 0.8m thick. The masonry is mainly rubble but this is intermingled with ashlar suggesting the existence of a much earlier building on the site. The W gable remains intact though fissured (c.6m high) and is intaken on both faces at wallhead level. A small lintelled window lights the W gable. The E gable has been partly rebuilt and rounded off during consolidation, probably in 1846. The lower part of a central buttress has been retained in the E gable and above it carved fragments have been incorporated in the wall: part of a quatrefoil and a grave tablet with a book and a pair of crossed bones. The intervening wallheads have also been neatened. The entrance is in the N wall through the remains of a late transitional doorway (c.1200). On either side of the doorway were nook-shafts but these have vanished. The remaining somewhat weathered capitals have waterleaf carving and square abaci. A transitional window, splayed and checked externally pierces the E part of the N wall. The remains of a round-headed and chamfered priest's door can be seen in the S wall. This door has been bisected by the insertion of a 19th-century upright tomb. Also included in the scheduling is the 13th-century recumbent effigy of an ecclesiastic which lies under the NE window (dug up in the interior in

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.