2011

NS3975 : Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's church

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

Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's church
Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's church
When the Dixon family acquired this land, they removed the existing gravestones from the vicinity of NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church, ploughed up that old burial ground, and then placed their own memorials within the ruins. When this particular stone was more intact, over a hundred years ago, the writing on the top could be read as "AK 1851".

In his 1888 book, "The God's Acres of Dumbarton", local historian Donald MacLeod states that he had "ascertained that the small headstone with A. K. engraved on it marks the lowly bed of Ann Knox, a near relative of the Dixons, after whom, or after whose forbears, an at one time outlying but now inlying portion of the town was called Knoxland".

For that area, see NS4074 : Knoxland Square, and see NS4076 : Memorial to Robert Buchanan for a probable identification of this Ann Knox.

Only a couple of stones survive from the era before the Dixons; for one of them, see NS3975 : Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's Church. See the link in the previous paragraph for details of other stones within the ruins.
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: Burial ground, Crematorium Image Buckets ?: Closeup other tags: Gravestone Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
This photo is linked from: Articles: · Dumbarton Cemetery Automatic Clusters: · Ruined Church [16] · Surviving Memorials [10] Other Photos: · The ruins of St Serf's Church · Knoxland Square · Memorial to Robert Buchanan Title Clusters: · Gravestone in ruins of St Serf's church [2] ·
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NS3975, 679 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Wednesday, 2 March, 2011   (more nearby)
Submitted
Monday, 14 November, 2011
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3934 7500 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:56.4669N 4:34.4352W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3934 7500
View Direction
EAST (about 90 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Supplemental image
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