Building record MAB6720 - ST GILES CHURCH, HIGH STREET, ELGIN

Church dedicated to St Giles, still in ecclesiastical use, built on the site of a 12th century parish church and graveyard.

Church dedicated to St Giles, still in ecclesiastical use, built on the site of a 12th century parish church and graveyard. The medieval parish church occupied an island in the centre of the High Street, and was presumably the church that was granted by William the Lion to the Bishop of Moray between 1187 and 1189. The early building was burned by Alexander, Wolf of Badenoch, in 1390, and the restored building survived further raids in 1402 and 1452. It consisted of a nave, 80 ft (24.38 m) long and 60 ft (18.29 m) wide, of five bays with north and south aisles, a central tower, short transepts and a chancel. The nave was rebuilt after the collapse of its vaulted stone roof in 1679. The transepts were removed between 1700 and 1740 to allow for street widening. The chancel, which had been partitioned off from the rest of the church in 1621 as the Little Kirk, was demolished in 1800. The graveyard, where burials ceased in the first half of the 17th Century, was cleared (or more likely levelled, since complete graves have been found in recent years) in 1826, when cartloads of human bones were transferred to the cathedral churchyard or mixed with earth and spread as top dressing on pasture at the limits of the burgh. The present church, designed by Archibald Simpson in the Greek Revival style, is a subtle and elegant building, built in 1825-8. It was his first major church commission, and in 1826 he had to redraw all the plans after a fire at his house destroyed the originals. It features a broad pedimented portico temple-front façade onto the Plainstones, with a plain laurel wreath frieze, supported on six massive Doric columns. Beneath this are three doorways with double leafed doors decorated with a Greek key pattern. The central door is taller than the flanking two. There are 6-bay flanks with plain windows flush to the wall, each with a single Greek key patterned transom. The projecting bay at the east end supports a single stage tower surmounted by a columned drum modelled on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. There are tall corniced and louvred openings and a clock to each tower face, and clasping angle pilasters. Inside, there is a panelled gallery to three sides, carried by simple wooden pillars with a Greek key-patterned parapet. There are giant pilasters to the east wall, and plain wooden pews. There is a circular panelled pulpit standing on a single reeded Roman Doric column, beneath a dome supported on Corinthian columns, which was added in 1981, taken from Newington parish church, Edinburgh. It is approached by a flight of stairs with a cast-iron balustrade. Within the church are a number of First and Second World War memorial plaques. In 1984, human remains were discovered in a service trench on the south exterior of the church, and beneath the floorboards in the centre of the church. A watching brief was carried out by Scotia Archaeology in March 1995 over service trenches and tree planting holes excavated to the east and west of the church in advance of a new programme of pedestrianisation. To the west of the church, there were two service ducts, a trench for a water tank to feed a fountain, an exploratory cable trench and a hole for a street lamp were excavated and recorded. To the east of the church, three service ducts, a hole for a new street lamp and two planting holes for new trees were assessed. Remains of the city tolbooth (NJ26SW0076) were revealed in the trench for the fountain tank. Elsewhere, parts of the old St Giles church graveyard were uncovered including 23 skeletons and numerous disarticulated bones. In 1996, three further trenches were opened by Scotia Archaeology on the south side of the High street, to the southeast of the church. The primary aim of the excavation was to determine the southern limit of the graveyard associated with the medieval church of St Giles. There was no evidence found in the three trenches of graveyard deposits, although some minor stratigraphy associated with old street levels had survived between modern service cables and the foundations of shops. A watching brief was carried out by CFA Archaeology in November 2019 during the installation of a water bottle refill station on the High Street. A fragmentary cobbled surface survived within the installation pit underlay modern concrete and cobbles but no archaeologically significant finds or deposits were identified. (NJ2152262837) To the East of the Church is the Muckle Cross (NJ26SW0016), and to the West is the War Memorial (NJ26SW0174) and fountain. The oak pulpit from the earlier church on the site is now at St Columba's Church (NJ26SW0068).

Period Notes
On the site of a 12th century church and graveyard. This was destroyed in 1390, and subsequently restored. The nave was rebuilt in 1679, and the transepts removed between 1700 and 1740. The chancel was demolished in 1800. The graveyard was put out of use in 1826, and the present church built in 1825-8. The pulpit was brought into the church in 1981. Listed designation given on 26/01/1971.

Author unknown, , PRESS & JOURNAL, 11/02/84 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1416.

DUNBAR, AH, 1896, PSAS 30(1895-6) 338-40, 338-40 (Bibliographic reference). SAB401.

CANT, RG, 1954, OLD ELGIN, 15-16 (Bibliographic reference). SAB217.

SHEPHERD, IAG, 1984, DES,12, 12 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1850.

SUAT, 1994, ELGIN BURGH SURVEY: ARCHAEOLOGICAL UPDATE, 10-11 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4738.

SUAT, 1995, ADDITIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK:THE PLAINSTONES (Bibliographic reference). SAB4737.

TERRY, J, 1995, DES : HIGH STREET, ELGIN, 36 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1972.

EXCAVATION

SCOTIA ARCHAEOLOGY, 1995, ELGIN HIGH STREET ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS - INTERIM REPORT (Bibliographic reference). SAB1721.

TERRY, J, 1996, DES, 76 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1969.

EXCAVATION

SCOTIA ARCHAEOLOGY LTD, 1996, ELGIN HIGH STREET PEDESTRIANISATION (Bibliographic reference). SAB3396.

EXCAVATION

HALL, DW, 1998, THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ELGIN: EXCAVATIONS ON LADYHILL AND IN THE HIGH STREET, & OVERVIEW OF THE BURGH . IN PSAS 128, 753-829 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5867.

CFA ARCHAEOLOGY, 2019, WATER BOTTLE REFILL STATION INSTALLATION, HIGH STREET, ELGIN: WATCHING BRIEF WRITTEN SCHEME OF INVESTIGATION, WSI (Bibliographic reference). SAB8200.

CFA ARCHAEOLOGY, 2020, WATER BOTTLE REFILL STATION INSTALLATION, HIGH STREET, ELGIN: WATCHING BRIEF, WB DSR (Bibliographic reference). SAB8063.

Jan 1 1976 , AAS/GR/76/CT114, 126, AAS/GR/76/CT114, 126 (Ground Photograph). SAB32444.

May 20 1986 , FT26-9,35,36, FT26-9,35,36 (Ground Photograph). SAB30561.

Author unknown, n.d., THE NORTHERN SCOT, 7/4/95 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1270.

Sep 17 2016 , AAS-GR-16-09-371 - 417, AAS-GR-16-09-371 - 417 (Ground Photograph). SAB35928.

Record last edited

Dec 8 2022 12:25PM