As part of Scottish Archaeology Month, Glasgow Archaeological Society organised tours of Govan Old Parish Church and Glasgow Cathedral on Saturday 22nd September 2001. It being more than 20 years since I had last visited the Cathedral, and never having been to the Govan Church, I decided to avail myself of this opportunity.
I made the decision to visit Govan first, and so at 1.45pm I found myself walking up a leafy approach which, to my surprise, took me away from the hustle and bustle of a busy Saturday in the Glasgow suburb. Inside there was a warm welcome from one of the ladies of the congregation, and an invitation to have a look around until the tour was due to start. At 2 o’clock we were introduced to Dr. Stephen Driscoll, a lecturer at Glasgow University, who took us back outside the Church door and explained that he had been involved in most of the digging that had taken place in the Church area (we all know who else was involved!). He showed us an area along one of the paths which was rather sunken, and said that it was one of his trenches which hadn’t been backfilled properly (some of the group of about 20 listeners moved rather quickly!).
Dr. Driscoll then invited us to look at the churchyard wall, and to observe that it was curved around the church, rather than the more usual square, or rectangle. This is reckoned to be a sign of a very early Christian site. In fact the enclosure is not circular, but is rather pear-shaped with the stalk of the pear to the S.E and excavation has shown that it is likely that the original entrance would have been at the point of the wall. Of course the present wall is relatively modern, and another of Dr. Driscoll’s excavations was undertaken to establish the history of the enclosure. A trench was dug close to the present gateway and revealed an outer ditch had provided earth to build a bank that would have defined the sacred area. A third area excavated by Dr. Driscoll’s team was one that ordinarily would not have been available around a church. In the case of Govan the search for the earliest building on the site was facilitated by the fact that the current mid-19th century building goes against normal practice and is aligned N-S leaving an area to the east that could be dug. Here digging discovered early foundations and E-W aligned burials which rank amongst the earliest Christian burials anywhere in Scotland.
Dr. Driscoll told us that he believes two major events in Scotland’s history have a direct and discernible effect on the religious site at Govan. The first was the fact that in 870 the Vikings sacked the royal fortress of Strathclyde at Dumbarton, and nothing more is heard of it in the records for a considerable period of time. It is Dr. Driscoll’s contention that the royal court thereafter moved to Govan, and he showed us several pieces of convincing supporting evidence. To see the first we walked away from the Church for a couple of hundred yards to where a busy outdoor market was taking place. The market is sited on what was once known as Doomster Hill, though there is very little rise to be seen today. Excavations here have shown it to have been an artificial mound which originally rose some 5m above the land around it. Interestingly, the original entrance at the “pear-stalk” of the enclosure points straight towards the mound and may have formed part of a processional way. If the kings of Strathclyde were in fact based here in Govan the mound would have been the place were the royal court sat in judgement and where sentences, or “dooms”, were pronounced.
We then walked back to the church and went inside to see the collection of early Christian sculptures. In Scotland only St. Andrews and Iona have larger collections, which must mean that this Church was of great importance in the past. The earliest of the sculptures are the five hogback graves, which range from c900 to c1000. Some people think that they look like upturned boats, but in fact they are intended to represent houses with tiled roofs. Such gravestones occur in areas of Viking settlement in Britain. The next group of carved stones are the four cross-shafts, and again Govan is unusual in the number it has; comparable numbers are only found in major religious centres like Kells and Clonmacnoise. The third group is the recumbent gravestones (now confusingly set upright along the aisle walls). Again they are here in huge numbers, and the question is whether this represents ecclesiastical or religious importance? Dr. Driscoll believes that no other religious site has anything like these numbers.
Finally there is a stone sarcophagus, the only monolithic coffin from Scotland, and only one other is known from Britain. It was found buried in the churchyard (minus its lid, and any former contents) in the 1850s. However it is clear from the quality of its carved decoration that it was never intended to be buried, it was intended to be seen and venerated by visitors. The main image does not appear to be ecclesiastical. It is a warrior on horseback accompanied by animals that may be interpreted as deer and dogs. Dr. Driscoll believes it to be a hunting scene, but unfortunately art historians differ in their opinion as to its period, dating it variously between 900 and 1100. What is clear, is that all the sculptures date up to about 1100, and that there is nothing that can be dated later. This ties in with the other major Scottish historical episode that Dr. Driscoll believes influenced events at Govan. Between 1114 and 1118, King David I of Scotland, having newly acquired the kingdom of Strathclyde and incorporated it into his own domain, established the Cathedral at Glasgow. It is as if he wanted a new religious centre which had no connection with the former rulers of the area, and afterwards Govan seems to sink into obscurity.
Our tour over, some of the ladies of the congregation served up tea and home-made cakes to the group, and we also had the opportunity to watch a 10 minute video history which included footage of Tony Robinson explaining that it is sites like Govan that attract him to archaeology.
Valerie Reilly
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Link to the official Friends of Govan Old website – lists all 40 stones with images by Alligator Descartes |
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From the Archaeoptics site details of the massive Govan 12 Hogback recumbent grave monument |
| The Modern Pictish Stones of Barry Grove | This site shows the replica stonework created by Barry Grove including the ‘Govan’ Stone done for the Time Team Programme |