RUTHERGLEN OLD PARISH CHURCH GRAVEYARD (WILLIAM WALLACE)

The present church was designed by the architect J J Burnet 1902 in Gothic style, the fourth on this site since the original foundation in the 6th century. The gable end of an 11th-century church still stands in the graveyard supporting St Mary’s steeple (15th century). It contains the church bell 1635. Stained glass including a First World War Memorial. Communion cups dated 1665 are still in use. The churchyard occupies an ancient site, at its gateway two stone offertory shelters, and a sundial set above its entrance date 1679.
According to David Ure’s History of East Kilbride and Rutherglen published in 1793, the site of the present church may originally have been a centre of Druid worship. The evidence for this was a circular ring of trees which enclosed the graveyard up until the 17th century – circular rings of trees being typical of Druid ‘groves’. The earliest surviving records of the graveyard round the church date from 1262 A.D.
There has been a church building on the site of the present church for 1400 years. The first church was founded in the 6th century by St. Conval, a disciple of St. Kentigern, the Patron Saint of Glasgow. It was replaced around 1100 A.D. by the Second Church Building so it is perhaps not surprising that no images of the First Church survive.
The second church on the site was built in the 12th century. Norman capitals (the tops of columns) from this church used to be on display in the former Rutherglen Museum and the gable end of this mediaeval church is clearly visible standing in the graveyard supporting St. Mary’s steeple which was added to the mediaeval church around 1500 A.D. In the Middle Ages the minister of Rutherglen was a rural Dean and his Deanery took in almost half of Lanarkshire. It was either in this pre-Reformation church or in the graveyard that William Wallace concluded the peace between England and Scotland on 8th February, 1297 and it was in this same place that Sir John Monteith contracted with the English to betray Wallace. These events are commemorated in the present church on two plaques donated by the Society of William Wallace - a brass one inside the church adjacent to St Mary's Door and a slate one on the outside wall facing the surviving gable wall of the pre-Reformation church. The Scottish Parliament called by the Guardians of Scotland met on 10th May 1300 in the mediaeval church.

















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