Clackmannanshire Council Online

Old Kirkyard and Mar & Kellie Mausoleum

Old Kirkyard and Mar & Kellie Mausoleum

(Late Medieval, 1819) Kirkgate, Alloa

The old kirkyard surrounds the ruined west gable and tower of the medieval parish church of St Mungo. The church was first established in the 14th century and a burial vault for the Erskine family, Earls of Mar, was constructed beneath the chancel in 1572. The church was enlarged and the tower, with its curved, bell-shaped roof, built in 1680-2. The mason for this work was Tobias Bauchop, whose house still stands in Kirkgate. In the early 18th century John, 6th Earl of Mar, built a private family aisle with a burial vault on the north side of the church. The Old Kirk became very overcrowded with the large congregation (and burials") and was condemned in 1816: it was demolished and many of the stones reused in the construction of the new parish church in Bedford Place.

Designed by James Gillespie Graham, who also designed the new parish church, the Mar & Kellie Mausoleum was built on the site of the Mar Aisle of the Old Kirk. The groin-vaulted, plastered ceiling was once painted brightly and decorated with flowers and Rococo panels. It contains some fine memorials to the Erskine family and was partly restored in 1994-6.

Based on recent research involving geophysical investigation and the study of the gravestones within the old kirkyard, the guided tours will look at Kirkgate and its association with the port of Alloa, which was a major port which traded with the Low Countries and beyond for four hundred years.