At the heart of Scotland’s Christian heritage

In his final article in this series, John R Hume reflects on the history of Christianity at Whithorn in Wigtownshire.

IN 2008 I wrote a series of articles on the ‘Cathedrals’ of the Church of Scotland. I considered including the subject of the present article, but decided that though this church is on the site of a bishop’s cathedral, it is entirely a nineteenthcentury parish church.

In the current series of articles I have chosen buildings in a wide range of places, dates, and styles, which have particular meanings for me. In choosing a subject for this, my last article in the series, I realised that I had never written about Whithorn: St Ninian’s Priory, though for a time in the 1980s I was deeply involved with its environs. In 1984 I joined the Ancient Monuments Division of the Scottish Office as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, responsible for monuments in state care in an area including Dumfries and Galloway. These included the remains of Whithorn Priory, its museum, St Ninian’s Chapel at the Isle of Whithorn, St Ninian’s Cave at Glasserton, and the carved stones at Kirkmadrine. One of my first duties was to advise on an application to build sheltered housing on a field next to the Priory, scheduled as an Ancient Monument as it appeared to contain evidence of religious use.

Brought up to believe that St Ninian had built the first stone church in Scotland at Whithorn .I recommended that consent for this application be refused, and was then told that if it were refused a programme of excavation would have to be organised. A colleague and I accordingly went to the University of Durham, to discuss the matter with Professor Rosemary Cramp, the foremost authority on the archaeology of the ‘Early Christian’ period. With her support the Whithorn Trust was established, which over several years uncovered fascinating evidence of Whithorn as an important ‘Early Christian’ settlement. I worked closely with the Trust, and with a local authority-based Management Committee until 1990, when I transferred to the Historic Buildings part of Historic Scotland. The ‘Whithorn Dig’, led by Peter Hill became a notable visitor attraction.

About three years ago I began to look seriously at the history of the Church in Scotland during the first millennium. The received view of St Ninian was that he was sent to Galloway from Rome as a missionary bishop, in the late fourth century. My research strongly suggests that Ninian was sent by St Martin of Poitiers to convert the Southern Picts (living in eastern Scotland between the Forth and Stonehaven) to a Church that had its origin on the Day of Pentecost. The discovery of a Ch-Rho symbol, (adopted by the Emperor Constantine I when he began the toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire in the early fourth century) carved on a wall of St Ninian’s Cave at Glasserton, suggests that there was an earlier missionary presence in this part of Galloway in the early-mid fourth century AD.

This background gives the present church building a particular significance.

It was built in 1822 to replace a church adapted from the nave of the Priory after the Reformation. The builders were local tradesmen, James Laurie, James McQueen and Authy McMillan; the tower was added later.

Originally known simply as Whithorn Parish Church, it became Whithorn Priory Parish Church in 1929, on the Union of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church. In 1937 a further union between this church and St Ninian’s, originally a Burgher Secession congregation, resulted in its present name. This building, though modest in appearance, is at the heart of the very early coming to Scotland of the first ‘Church of the Way’, linked directly to the wonder of the Incarnation, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.