2011

NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church

taken 15 years ago, near to Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

The ruins of St Serf's Church
The ruins of St Serf's Church
For the main description, see NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church. The present photograph is a similar but wider view, showing the ruins within their small fenced enclosure (for context, see NS3975 : The enclosure of St Serf's Church). At the time when the church was in use, this area was located within Cardross parish; St Serf's was the parish church. It became a ruin in the sixteenth century.

On the far wall of the ruin is an inscription; this commemorates various members of the Dixon family, as do most of the various small gravestones. The latter have no text on front or back, but simply have inscribed on the narrow top some initials (R.D, J.D., A.K., and a more worn example which is perhaps another J.D.), with, in most cases, a year. For the AK stone, see NS3975 : Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's church.

Just inside the entrance of the ruin, on the left, is a larger recumbent stone bearing a carved shield and cross-bones: NS3975 : Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's Church.
Ruins of St Serf's Church

This was the ancient parish church for Cardross Parish. Its ruins are located in what is now Levengrove Park – Link – and some much later memorials for various members of the Dixon family (who were connected with Dumbarton's Glassworks) are now located within its walls. See Link (in a Geograph article) for further comments.

Levengrove Park :: NS3974

The lands of Levengrove were originally part of an area named Ferrylands, so called because, before Dumbarton Bridge was built in 1765, the River Leven was crossed by means of a ferry. John Dixon, a Dumbarton merchant, acquired Levengrove in 1805 from Richard Dennistoun of Kelvingrove (in Glasgow).

The Dixons built Levengrove House (demolished c.1880), whose former grounds make up much of what is now the park. In 1885, Levengrove Park, 32 acres in area, was gifted to the town of Dumbarton by Dr Peter Denny and John McMillan (son of local shipbuilder Archibald McMillan), the expense to them being £20,000.

The park contains the ruins of St Serf's Church – Link – anciently the parish church of Cardross. That church was at one time part of a cluster of buildings, a clachan, that is marked as "Little Kirktoun" on the Pont/Blaeu map of the Lennox. The ruined church was later used by the Dixon family as a burial place: see Link (in a Geograph article).


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Historic sites and artefacts Ruin: Church Place: Dumbarton Category: Church (ruined) other tags: Levengrove Park Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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NS3975, 679 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Wednesday, 2 March, 2011   (more nearby)
Submitted
Saturday, 12 March, 2011
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3935 7501 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:56.4724N 4:34.4260W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3934 7501
View Direction
EAST (about 90 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Supplemental image
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