Whitekirk
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(October 2015) |
| Whitekirk | |
|---|---|
  Whitekirk  Whitekirk Location withinScotland | |
| OS grid reference | NT596815 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Dunbar |
| Postcode district | EH42 |
| Dialling code | 01620 870xxx |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Whitekirkis a small settlement inEast Lothian,Scotland. Together with the nearby settlement ofTyninghame,it gives its name to the parish ofWhitekirk and Tyninghame.[1]
Whitekirk
[edit]Whitekirk is 4 mi (6.4 km) fromNorth Berwick,8 mi (13 km) fromDunbarand 25 mi (40 km) east ofEdinburgh.A place of Christian worship from the earliest times and known inOld English:Hwīt Cirice,having aholy well,now lost, dedicated toSt Mary the Virgin,and a famous statue, likewise dedicated and known asOur Lady of Haddington.It was on thepilgrim's route fromSt AndrewstoSantiago de Compostelaand described as a stopping point in theIter pro peregrinis ad Compostellam.,Book V of theCodex Calixtinus.
The shrine of Our Lady at Whitekirk was desecrated by the armies ofEdward III of Englandin 1356, a period that would become known as theBurnt Candlemas.Later in the 14th century, the shrine of Our Lady was reconsecrated at the newly builtChurch of St. Mary the VirgininHaddington.Whitekirk continued to be a place of pilgrimage, however, receiving visits from the futurePope Pius IIandJames IV,Margaret Tudor,andJames V.[2]
In early 1435Aeneas Piccolomini(Pope Pius II) was travelling to Scotland on a diplomatic mission asPapal legatewhen his ship was beset by storms. After giving prayers to Our Lady, the ship and its crew made port safely at Dunbar, and having promised to walk barefoot to the nearestshrineto the virgin, Piccolomini set out for Whitekirk. The eight miles through the frozen countryside left him withrheumatismthat he would complain about for the rest of his life.
James IV came to Whitekirk from Dunbar in May 1497, leaving money for poor folk and lepers.[3]TheCovenantingpreacherJohn Blackaddergave his lastconventicleon the hill behind the Church in 1678.
The building known as the tithe barn may have resulted from the rebuilding of the pilgrims' hostel in the 16th century. It has also been suggested that it formed a tower built byOliver Sinclairbefore becoming a tithe barn in the 17th century. Information found within the parish church indicated that Abbot Crawford of Holyrood may have once owned it. Today it is Bed & Breakfast.[4]
The Holy Well dried up in the 19th century following agricultural drainage, but is thought to be located not far from the church building.
The current church was last restored in 2005–2006. Dramatic events in 1914 saw the church set on fire, allegedly bysuffragettecampaigners, although this has not been proved. The Kirk was restored by the office ofSir Robert Lorimer.Lorimer also designed the village war memorial in 1920.[5]
Whitekirk derives its name from the original colour of the Kirk: white, and was once known as 'Hamer' or the greater Ham. The church is now the red of its underlying sandstone.
From 1806 to 1852 the minister of Whitekirk was theRev James Wallace,who served asModerator of the General Assemblyin 1831/32, the highest position in theChurch of Scotland.[6]He lived in the manse which was built in 1796.[7]
Pilgrimage
[edit]
On the second Saturday of May, every year since 1971, there is anecumenicalpilgrimagethat starts at Whitekirk and finishes in Haddington. Begun byPatrick Maitlandthe 17thEarl of Lauderdale,the numbers attending rose from 30 people in the early seventies to over 2,000; however, in 2008 the pilgrimage was cancelled due to lack of numbers.
Notable residents
[edit]- John Watson LaidlayFRSElived within the parish at Seacliff House, east ofTantallon Castle
- Peter Hately Waddell,minister of religion and author
Notable burials
[edit]- Sir David Baird, 3rd Baronet(1832–1913)
- Sir David Baird, 4th Baronet(1865–1941)
- SirPeter Burt(1944–2017)
- SirAlistair Grant(1937–2001)
- Rev William Hamilton (d.1712)
- Very Rev Dr James Wallace(1770–1852)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Peter Hately, Waddell (1893).An old kirk chronicle: being a history of Auldhame, Tyninghame, and Whitekirk in East Lothian, from session records, 1615-1850.Edinburgh: W. Blackwood.
- ^David Ditchburn, 'Scottish Pilgrimage',Julian Goodare& Alasdair A. MacDonald,Sixteenth-Century Scotland(Brill, 2008), p. 55: J. B. Paul, 'Whitekirk church and its history',TSES,6 (1920/1), 119–124.
- ^Thomas Dickson,Accounts of Treasurer,vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 337.
- ^Rogers, Joseph (2021).Tithe barns.Stroud, Gloucestershire. p. 8.ISBN978-1-4456-9285-2.OCLC1242784225.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^Dictionary of Scottish Architects;"Robert Lorimer"
- ^"Moderators of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland genealogy project".geni_family_tree.
- ^Buildings of Scotland: Lothian by Colin McWilliam
Sources
[edit]F. H. Groome,Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.Edinburgh, 1883
External links
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