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Old Church, Logie, Stirlingshire

Location
Logie Old Churchyard, Greenhouses, Stirling (56°9′2″N, 3°54′30″W)
Logie
NS 815 969
pre-1975 traditional (Scotland) Stirlingshire
now Stirling
medieval Dunblane
medieval not confirmed
  • James King
  • James King
11 September 2019

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Feature Sets
Description

It has long been held that the old church at Logie was dedicated to St Serf, but there is no clear evidence for the dedication. In 1683, the church had become 'very ruinous' (Logie, A Parish History, I, 125), so substantial works on both the interior and exterior of the church were undertaken. 'The presbytrie met on March, 1686, thereafter for dividing of the church lately rebuilt there' (Logie, A Parish History, I, 132). Further repairs were made in the 18thc. In 1762 a group of dissatisfied parishioners established a new church, which they built at Blair Logie, a few miles away. By the early 19thc, it was decided that the fabric of the old church of Logie was irreparable, and a replacement church for it was built in 1805, less than half a mile away. The graveyard of the old church continued to be used. The ruins of the church survive. Following a meeting in late 1870, the old churchyard was ‘adjusted’ and ‘improved’ (Logie, A Parish History, I, 303). SE of the church is an intact medieval grave monument, likely to be of Romanesque date. Another grave stone is also known to have existed. This may now be represented by the row of somewhat jumbled stones lying north-south nearby.

History

The earliest known reference to the church at Logie appears in an actum of Simon, bishop of Dunblane, of the late 1170s or 1180s (Carte Monialium de Northberwic, no. 5), in which the church of ‘Login Atheren' was confirmed to the North Berwick priory of St Mary. This grant was confirmed again by Abraham, bishop of Dunblane, in the early 13thc. 'Ysaac, Michaele clerico persona de Logyn’, appears as a witness to a separate episcopal actum of about 1189-93 (Scottish Episcopal Acta, 34 no. 32). An entry in the Bagimond's Rolls, a survey of spiritualities and temporalities in the kingdom of Scots in the 1280s, records that the vicarage at Logie (uicarius de Logyn) was valued at 2 marks. Pope Gregory XI appears to have provided Thomas de Loquorsward with the perpetual vicarage, but in 1378 he was compelled to surrender this by Pope Clement VII (Anti-pope at Avignon). In a letter of 1417, Pope Benedict XIII (Anti-pope at Avignon) refers to a certain William as vicar pensionary of Logie. In 1596, when the abbey of North Berwick was dissolved, the parish church of Logie and its teinds were put into the hands of the king.

Features

Furnishings

Tombs/Graveslabs

Comments/Opinions

Place names in Scotland incorporating variations of the word ‘logy’ or ‘logie’ are not uncommon. Charters and other documents rarely distinguish between different place names, though contextual details occasionally allow more secure identification. Moreover, there are three churches in the neighbourhood of our Logie (NE of Stirling): the ‘old kirk’, the present parish church of Logie, and Blairlogie church. All three have graveyards. Logie near Stirling is also referred to historically as ‘Logy’, ‘Logyn’, ‘Lochin’, ‘Login Atheren’ and ‘Logie Airthrey’

J.T. Lang suggests an 11th-century date for both the intact Logie grave monument and for the section of grave cover found by Lacaille. Within the Stirling region there are other coped grave covers with related decoration to the intact Logie stone, as at Tulliallan and Tillicoultry. Lang dates the Tulliallan stone to the 11th century, but proposes a twelfth-century one for that at Tillicoultry. There seems to be considerable confusion about which stone Lacaille actually found in the stream. Lacaille described it as a single stone about one foot long. Lang was uncertain which stone it was and suggested that "it may now be the lumpy stone set as a headstone at the N end of row 6'". While the more recent Early Medieval Carved Stones Project lists the stone fragment, it gives measurements identical to the nearby intact grave monument. It also gives the location as 'probably in the old churchyard at Logie'.

Bibliography

The Bannatyne Club, Carte Monialium de Northberwic (Edinburgh, 1847), 6-7 no. 5, 8-9 no. 7, and 11-12 no. 11.

C. Burns, ed., Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon 1378-1394 (Edinburgh, 1976), 3.

R. Fawcett, J. Luxford, R. Oram and T. Turpie, Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches, http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/corpusofscottishchurches (accessed 2/7/20)

R . Fergusson, Logie, a Parish History, 2 vols. (Paisley, 1905).

J. Gifford and F. Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Stirling and Central Scotland (New Haven and London, 2002), 241-2.

J. Gifford and F. Walker, The Buildings of Scotland: Stirling and Central Scotland (New Haven and London, 2002), 241-2.

Grampian Club, Registrum Monasterii de Cambuskenneth A.D. 1147-1535 (Edinburgh, 1872), xxix and 161.

Historic Environment Scotland, Canmore (www.canmore.org.uk).

A. Lacaille, ‘Ecclesiastical Remains in the Neighbourhood of Luss, with Notes on some Unrecorded Crosses and Hog-backed Stones’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 62 (Edinburgh, 1928), 85-106.

J. Lang, ‘Hogback monuments in Scotland’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 105 (Edinburgh, 1975), 206-35.

A. Lawrie, Early Scottish Charters Prior to A.D. 1153 (Glasgow, 1905), 140-141 no. CLXXIX, and 400-1 no. CLXXIX.

J. MacKinlay, Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland, Non-Scriptural Dedications (Edinburgh, 1914), 484.

F. McGurk, ed., Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Benedict XIII of Avignon 1394-1419 (Edinburgh, 1976), 350-1.

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments: Stirlingshire, 1 (Edinburgh, 1963), 118-9 no. 127, plates 13A, 13B and 42A.

W. Robertson, ‘Parish of Logie’, The New Statistical Account of Scotland, 8 (Edinburgh and London, 1845), 214-33.

The Scottish History Society, 'Bagimond's Roll', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 6 (Edinburgh, 1939), 54 and 71.

N. Shead, ed., Scottish Episcopal Acta: The Twelfth Century, 1 (Woodbridge and Rochester, 2016), 34 no. 32, and 51 no. 48.

T. Wallace, ‘Notes from the Old Churchyards of Logie, Lecropt, Dunblane, and Moy, with a Note on an Impression of Human Feet cut in Stone’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 46 (Edinburgh, 1912), 436-42.

J. Wright, ‘Parish of Logie’, The Statistical Account of Scotland, 3 (Edinburgh, 1792), 287-9.