Scotland’s religious heritage is all around us. In any small town or city neighbourhood, cast your eyes and it won’t be hard to spot the steeples of churches. However, with increased secularisation and fall in church attendance, these historic buildings no longer play the role in our communities that they used to.
The life cycle of historic buildings often involve gradual changes in ownership and use. But the shifting religious practices have resulted in a wholescale landscape change. This is particularly triggered by the Church of Scotland’s decision to sell around 400 of its buildings since 2023. A decision affecting around a quarter of the churches and affiliated buildings in the country.
In response to this major change, we embarked on the Places of Worship project. The project looked at religious buildings around Scotland to preserve the history of the purpose in which they were built. It also records how they’ve evolved with their communities. So far we’ve improved or created over 2,200 site records!
One of these churches is Dunglass Collegiate Church. Before passing into our protection, it served as a farm building and later a family burial plot. Through all these iterations, its cultural witness has been quite literally carved in stone.
Explore the history and evolution of Dunglass Collegiate Church and find out what it says about Scotland’s religious and cultural shifts.
Dunglass Collegiate Church: A look to the past to predict the future
Dunglass Collegiate Church is located near Cockburnspath in the Scottish Borders. It comes from the same religious tradition as its more well-known cousin: Rossyln Chapel, made famous by Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
Dunglass Collegiate Church is the only surviving building from its medieval community. Founded by Sir Alexander Home in 1443, Dunglass Church’s charter of Royal assent was confirmed by King James II and then by the Pope between 1450 and 1451. Due to its proximity to England, it saw skirmishes between the English and Scots during the 16th century “Rough Wooing”.
Dunglass Collegiate Church from the air. Zoom in on trove.scot
Both Rosslyn Chapel, originally known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, and Dunglass Collegiate Church, originally consecrated the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, were a distinct type of medieval church funded by affluent individuals seeking prayers for themselves and their families. This practice reflected the 15th-century belief that money could buy spiritual benefits.
The small religious communities in these churches primarily prayed for their benefactors; relieving them of the burden of praying for their own salvation. These prayers were offered within an aesthetic typical of collegiate churches famous for their elaborate stone decorations: statues of saints, biblical scenes, and coats of arms. These surviving medieval carvings and decorations offer a fascinating glimpse into past spiritual and cultural customs
Whilst Rosslyn Chapel maintains its religious identity (albeit a more secularised one), Dunglass Collegiate Church stands as evidence of how buildings—specifically churches—can remain and adapt as cultural bastions long after they have fallen out of their original use.
The grounds of Dunglass Collegiate Church. Check it out on trove.scot
Preserved in Stone: A tour of the cultural testimony of Dunglass Collegiate Church
As a “collegiate church”, the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin (Dunglass) was originally staffed by a college of priests and choir boys. These celebrants entered the choir from the outside via a side entrance priest’s door. Above it sits an emblem of the Home family.
The priest’s door and the Home family emblem
Inside the choir sits a stone-carved priest’s seat surrounded by carvings of winged and long-haired angels playing a harp and lute. The interior walls feature concertation crosses and Knights Templar Crosses, whose origins remain a mystery. It is rumoured that Sir James Hall added these crosses in the 19th century to instill the church with a whisper of mythological intrigue.
However, the most fascinating of the building’s carvings presides with the carving of a lady’s head and torso.
Women are only seldom represented in medieval art, so this rare instance in Dunglass Collegiate Church is special. The woman most likely represents the height of 15th century fashion. Her position within a recessed tomb is also striking. Was this the burial plot of Lord and Lady Home? Of their daughter? Whilst we cannot know for certain, she captures something both specific to her time period and intrinsically human: memorialisation.
Representing ourselves in art, and sculpture specifically, is something that humans have been doing for thousands of years. For centuries before the advent of oil painting, medieval sculptors used stone carving to transcribe their Christian worldview. These carvings required skilled and experienced labour. A medieval stonemason’s training took years to complete. Masons were typically part of guilds which regulated the standards of work and ensured skills were passed from one generation to the next. The carvings at Dunglass are therefore more than works of artistic merit. They are windows into the medieval world on a communal scale.
Our Legacy: Decision Time
The 16th century Reformation marked the end of the collegiate church system in Scotland. Many collegiate churches were converted into parish churches. This transformation was encouraged by landowners who sought to preserve these important religious structures, and in some cases, the old system of worship. However, not all collegiate churches survived this period of upheaval. Many were left to ruin, succumbing to the ravages of time, looting, and neglect. The zeal of Protestant reform which swept through Scotland led to the dismantling of traditional Roman Catholic institutions and symbols. At Dunglass, some decorations, stained glass windows and other Catholic iconography was removed and replaced. Dunglass remained active as a church until the mid-1700s, when it was repurposed into a barn. This conversion was achieved by removing the east window to create a door of suitable size for horses to pass through.
Sir James Hall, an antiquary, acquired the Dunglass estate in 1817 and constructed the nearby Dunglass House. The Hall family used the south transept of the church as a family burial plot. This prevented the church from being dismantled for its stone—a common fate befalling disused churches. In 1919, the Usher family purchased Dunglass. The new Dunglass House, constructed by the Ushers in the 1950s, replaced the old estate house following a fire in 1947. The house currently serves as a private residence and wedding venue. Visitors can access the church building through the well-maintained grounds of their estate.
What’s does the future hold?
The changing fortunes of Dunglass Collegiate Church have left a mark upon this historic church. Its surviving carvings preserve a vital connection to Scotland’s medieval heritage. The church stands as a testament to the fragility of artistic expression. It reminds us of the importance of safeguarding these windows into our past. It allows us to take a small glimpse into the lives and faith of the people who once worshipped there. In light of the changes currently happening across the built environment, it invites us to ask questions about what we will preserve today for the future.
When we look up at our skylines, will we recognise the steeples of our religious past? Within the walls of our former churches, what will our descendants find of cultural value? These are not just musings for strolls around our neighbourhoods. They are pressing and exciting questions with decisions that must be made over the upcoming weeks, months, and years.
Explore this shifting landscape through our ongoing Places of Worship project on trove.scot. Visit our page on Dunglass Collegiate Church.
Share
About Author
