Kirkmadrine Stones are some of the oldest early Christian memorial stones in Britain. They can be found at Kirkmadrine Church. While the current church was built in the late 1800s, some of the stones date back as far as 400-600 AD. The stones are displayed behind a glass door on the church building.
The three oldest memorials, known as Kirkmadrine 1, 2 and 3, probably date from the AD 500s. They have Latin inscriptions and Greek chi-rho crosses, and they commemorate priests:
Kirkmadrine 1 reads HIC IACENT S(AN)C(T)I ET PRAECIPUI SACER DOTES IDES VIVENTIUS ET MAVORIUS (‘Here lie the holy and chief priests, Ides, Viventius and Mavorius’)
Kirkmadrine 2 commemorates someone named Florentius
Kirkmadrine 3 alludes to the Book of Revelation: ‘the beginning and the end’. It may not have been a burial marker and may instead have been located in a liturgical context in the church
The three are directly associated with the churchyard, and stood in the burial ground until the 1840s. They’re three of the oldest Christian memorials in Scotland – the oldest being the Latinus Stone at Whithorn.
The Kirkmadrine Stones are the most northerly examples of a sculptural phenomenon that ranges throughout the western part of the Brittonic-speaking world. They’re crucial in understanding northern Britain as it emerged from the shadow of Imperial Rome in the AD 400s.
How to get there from The Old Smiddy; 31.1 miles (45 mins) via A747. What3words: downs.mull.officers
