Documents

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The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM12101_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600014166)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises the remains of Little Dalton kirk, a medieval to early-modern parish church, with upstanding remains dating from the 13th to 17th centuries. It lies on the E side of Dalton Burn on a raised 'platform' within what is now pasture. It is marked on all editions of the Ordnance Survey map as Little Dalton Church (remains of).

Little Dalton is mentioned in several 17th-century documents, including a letter from James VI to the Privy Council, dated 1615.

The church is T-shaped in plan, with a rectangular nave oriented WSW/ESE, a square off-centre NNW aisle and a sacristy on the NNW wall. You enter the aisle through a round-headed arch with projecting imposts, on the NNW side of the nave. The Little Dalton Kirk Trust has consolidated the walls in the recent past. They stand to 2-4m in height. Three windows with rectangular rear-arches survive intact: a small lancet, one round-arched and one rectangular window. Tumble still exists internally but some rubble has been moved and is piled up on the northern side of the graveyard enclosure. Also included in the scheduling are the remains of a burial ground, enclosed by a wall, which continued in use into the 18th century. Most of the gravestones are 18th-century but one bears the date 1665. The burial ground is that of the Carruthers family of Holmains. The whole site is fenced off. There is an interpretation board, erected and maintained by the Little Dalton Kirk Trust, on the WSW end of the enclosed area.

The area proposed for scheduling is irregular on plan, to include the remains of the church, graveyard and enclosure and an area around them within which associated remains are likely to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. Specifically excluded from the scheduling to allow for their maintenance are the above-ground elements of the interpretation board and the fence enclosing the monument.

Statement of National Importance

Cultural Significance

The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

The monument is a relatively well-preserved example of a medieval and early-modern church with upstanding remains dating from the 13th to 17th centuries, and possibly earlier. Despite some evidence of consolidation into a romantic ruin in the Victorian period and some clearance of loose stone in the 1960s, this monument retains well-constructed drystone walls and diagnostic architectural features. It includes the church itself, as well as gravestones, an enclosure wall and archaeological remains likely to survive in situ.

The site has considerable potential to enhance understanding of medieval parish churches and religious practices in the area. Little Dalton represents the accumulated remains of successive renovations and repairs on a single site and therefore has the potential to provide information relating to at least six centuries. In the 1960s, archaeologists demonstrated by excavation that the church had been built in the 13th or perhaps even 12th century. The building underwent a phase of reconstruction in the 15th century, before falling out of use in the 17th century. The church therefore demonstrates the tendency before the 19th century to adapt existing buildings rather than construct new ones. The surrounding graveyard carried on in use until the 18th century, it being the family burial ground of the Carruthers of Holmains. The Little Dalton Kirk Trust has undertaken some conservation and consolidation in the recent past.

Excavators found some medieval pottery and a Richmond copper farthing (1625-34) during the 1960s excavations, as well as a rectangular stone feature against the E gable that may have been an altar. Excavators also found some skeletal material in a charnel pit in 1974.

Contextual characteristics

The monument is a good representative of a once numerous class. Of the 39 churches known to have held parochial status in eastern Dumfriesshire before the Reformation, substantial remains survive of only three, including St Mungo, Kirkbank, Dalton and Little Dalton. Factors including repeated modification and reconstruction, political and social unrest and natural attrition (for example, coastal erosion) have greatly reduced or even destroyed other churches. Together with the remains of churches such as St Mungo (also to be scheduled) and Dalton (already scheduled and Category B-listed), the remains at Little Dalton retain the potential to provide information on medieval and post-medieval religious practice. The survival of 17th-century documents relating to these churches enhances this potential. Comparison of the local ecclesiastical architectural features in this area with those on other Scottish churches may enhance our understanding of regional variation in ecclesiastical architecture between the medieval period and the 19th century. The existence of several phases of reconstruction and consolidation, potentially spanning six centuries or more, together with surviving primary documents, provides a unique opportunity to obtain a better understanding of the development of ecclesiastical architecture and religious life on a single site over a long period of time.

Associative characteristics

The monument is the product of medieval and post-medieval ecclesiastical, ritual and funerary practices. Developments in religious practice have affected the history of the site, particularly following the Reformation of 1560. Parliament united the parishes of Meikle Dalton and Little Dalton in 1609 but James VI then joined Mouswald to Little Dalton in a letter to the Privy Council of 27 May 1615. Dalton was united to Meikle Dalton again on 28 June 1633. Meikle Dalton Church then became the focus of worship for parishioners, Little Dalton Kirk falling out of use.

The church is associated with the village of Little Dalton, of which now only a ruined mill remains (...

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

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