The Historical Background to the Site of Rutherglen
Old Parish Church
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.
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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 still stands 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. |
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The Scottish Parliament called by the Guardians of Scotland met on
10th May 1300 in the mediaeval church.
The area round the church and graveyard was once the site of an
important ‘Fair’. In his Book of Common Order published in
1564, John Knox lists what he called the ‘Fairies of
Scotland’ i.e. Fairs of Scotland. St. Luke’s Fair is listed
as being held on October 18th in ‘Ruglane’. October 18th is
St. Luke’s Day and the Kirk Session has recently introduced a
service of Communion on the Sunday nearest to that date to mark St.
Luke’s Day and so maintain a link with this tradition of the past.
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The third Church on this site was built in 1794. During the
demolition of the old 12th century church a stone statue of St. Eloi,
the patron saint of hammermen was unearthed, as was a very old
sundial. The statue of St. Eloi is currently on display in Low Parks
Museum, 129 Muir Street, Hamilton, ML3 6BJ, (tel. 01698 283981).
By the 1890s this third church was in a state of considerable
disrepair. Thanks to the efforts of the Rev. William F
Stevenson, minister at this time, it was demolished in 1900 to make
way for the present building. |
The fourth church to be built on the site, and the church which is
presently in use, was constructed in 1902 by the famous Glaswegian
Victorian architect, J J Burnett. It consists of blonde ashlar
stonework supporting traditionally pitched and slated roofs with open
timber beams and trusses.
