Historic Graveyards

Rait winged headstone

The Historic Graveyards project aims to conserve and promote a number of important ruined churches and their churchyards in Perth and Kinross.

The Heritage Trust has set up a rolling programme of works which is aimed at addressing the repair, consolidation and interpretation of nationally important historic churchyard sites and monuments across the region. Perthshire has upwards of 80 Listed historic churchyards many of which also contain Scheduled Monuments. Taken as a whole these sites are of outstanding heritage and cultural value and many are known to be currently in a vulnerable condition.

The vision for the project is to identify, prioritise and apply best practice in conservation and repairs whilst simultaneously presenting the heritage assets to the public, and engaging with them, in the interpretative presentation in a way which informs and inspires. The gravestones, the boundary walls and the standing buildings all represent centuries of praise, of economic, social and spiritual development and of craftsmanship and it is now time to conserve these increasingly fragile time capsules.

The Historic Graveyards project is a county-wide initiative to map, explore, secure and explain. The increasingly fragile assets must be consolidated now or they will be lost forever. Thus headstone stability and integrity is critical – particularly since soft sandstone weathers badly, but has also enabled the development of a very rich tradition of carved and emblematic headstones. Perth and Kinross has the most ‘Adam and Eve’ headstones in the country. Boundary walls are often retaining and can develop stability problems. Redundant structures such as morthouses (to counter the ‘resurrectionists’), burial aisles or former churches are all too often ‘at risk’ for the want of basic repairs.

At Westown Church in the Carse of Gowrie substantial consolidation and repair was carried out during 2009. The Community Council at the adjoining parish of Rait, on seeing the work at Westown, asked that similar work be carried out at their ruined Church. This was done with volunteer labour early in 2009 and Kinfauns Church has been targeted for the autumn. Partnership working with local stake-holders is the only way in which the Trust can grow the scheme to be sustainable, economical and effective. We envisage that more contacts with other interested groups - such as those involved in family history and gravestone recording will be developed as the programme progresses.