Kirkmadrine Church and Burial-ground

Kirkmadrine stands on a low mound in the Rhins of Galloway, the western peninsula of old Wigtownshire, and is remembered less for its building than for the carved stones it has preserved. The site was an early Christian burial ground of real importance, probably attached to a monastery, and the pillar stones raised here rank among the earliest inscribed Christian gravestones known in Scotland — the oldest such monuments outside nearby Whithorn, the earliest dated to roughly the fifth century. Three of them were rediscovered in the nineteenth century, reused as gateposts and as a slab in the churchyard wall. One is carved with a chi-rho monogram and the Latin words ‘initium et finis’ (beginning and end); another commemorates holy priests, perhaps bishops. The names cut into the stones mix British, Irish, Roman and Gaulish forms, hinting at a community with wide continental contacts. The medieval parish church of Toskerton, dedicated to St Medran and held by Whithorn Priory, once stood here before the parish was joined to Stoneykirk in 1618. The present neo-Romanesque chapel was raised from the ruins by Lady McTaggart Stewart of Ardwell, whose family memorial shares the mound. The stones are now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland.