The Glencairn Aisle or Glencairn Vault at Kilmaurs, East Ayrshire is a Category B Listed vaulted sepulchral chapel. Built as a place for private contemplation and prayer, it also contains a large memorial monument, as well as the burial crypt of the Cunningham Earls of Glencairn and their family members. An 'aisle' is defined as a structure normally attached to a church, which may have burial crypt below, a family pew above, and sometimes a retiring room, as at the Glencairn Aisle.
It houses an exceptional ornately carved stone mural monument dated 1600 that commemorates James Cunningham, the 7th Earl of Glencairn, his countess, Margaret Campbell and eight of their children. It is the oldest such 'Glorious Tomb' monument built in the 17th century in Ayrshire and one of the oldest post-reformation monument in Scotland. The other Ayrshire examples are the Kennedy or Bargany Aisle at Ballantrae of circa 1601, the Skelmorlie Aisle at Largs of 1639, the Crauford Monument at Kilbirnie and the Hamilton Aisle at Dunlop of 1641.
The aisle is associated with St Maurs-Glencairn parish church that was dedicated to either the Virgin Mary or St Mora or Maura of Little Cumbrae, and was gifted to Kelso Abbey in 1170 by Robertus filli Wernebaldi, an ancestor of the Cunninghams. In 1413, it was endowed as a college of secular canons with a provost and several prebendaries. In 1600, James, seventh Earl of Glencairn, is said to have added the Glencairn Aisle or Vault to the then existing east-west oriented church building. In the aisle there is the aforementioned early 17th century mural monument (1600) commissioned by James, Seventh Earl of Glencairn for himself, his countess, Margaret, his children and close relatives.
Memorial plaques to members of the cadet branches of Caprington, Corsehill and Robertland are also present on the walls.
The Cunninghams, Earls of Glencairn
Kilmaurs has had strong links with the Cunningham family who were also associated with the tenement or lands of Lamburgton (sic) for a significant period during their rise to power, granted to the family by royal charter in 1319 following the Cunningham support at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The Cunningham chiefs had a weaker connection with the Barony of Kilmaurs after 1484 when Finlaystone became the family seat; Sir William Cunningham of Kilmaurs had married Margaret Denniston, co-heir to Sir Robert Denniston in 1405, and the dowry included the baronies of Denniston and Finlaystone in Renfrewshire, the lands of Kilmaronock in Dunbartonshire, Redhall and Colintoun in Mid-Lothian and the Barony of Glencairn in Dumfriesshire.
In 1786 James, the fourteenth Earl of Glencairn, broke the centuries-old connection of the Cunningham family with the area by selling the barony and estate of Kilmaurs, including Kilmaurs Place, to the Marchioness of Titchfield.Robertson (1823), Page 326.
The Collegiate Church Kilmaurs church was endowed in 1413 by Sir William Cunninghame as a secular, not being subject to or bound by religious rule, collegiate church with associated buildings to accommodate at least nine prebends, two clerks, choristers and servants. Maybole was the only other collegiate church in Ayrshire. These institutions were private chapels on an elaborate scale and their purpose was to make more lavish provision than could be made at an altar or chapel within a church for masses said for the soul of the founder, his family, their ancestors and descendants.
Each prebend or secular canon was endowed through a grant of the founder's land and they were appointed by the founder or his descendants. The college rules were stipulated in a founding charter for the conduct of the services with the style of the masses tailor made to meet the spiritual needs of the founder and their descendants. The charter also determined the personal and professional lives of the clergy, such as permanent personal residence at the college.
In the mid-16th century Presbyterian reformers disavowed the existence of purgatory and therefore the practice for continual prayers for souls trapped there ceased to be permitted as did prayers for the success and immortality of their family lines.
The Cunningham family were required to cease to use their buildings for these 'Popish' and idolatrous practices, the 5th earl taking secular control of the college and lands. Kilmaurs Collegiate Church remained as the parish church, but the associated buildings were put to other uses, such as the Grade A Listed building that became a doocot which carries a carved head and may have once been the girnal or grain store of the college.
A painting from the 1920s shows the 'Tour' in apparently fairly good condition. Demolished in the 1960s, it was square or slightly rectangular, a sandstone construction with a paler sandstone cornice. The west facing wall of this possibly three storey building had no apparent windows; however, the south facing wall had at least two openings, one of which may have been the entry door. It has some resemblance to the Abbot's Tower at Mauchline and may have been the administrative centre for the monks of Kelso Abbey. It may have provided accommodation and other facilities. Much of the stone was used to build a garden wall.
The earls used the patronage of the collegiate church to benefit various of their dependents. In addition, they were the tacksmen of the teinds of several parishes. A tacksman was a person who leased land and collected the tithes or teinds.
Hugh Cunningham, third son of William, 4th Earl, obtained the lands of Carlung near West Kilbride that had been held by Kilmaurs Collegiate Church. An ancient chapel once stood near Overton on the Carlung lands.
The name Kirkfauld is a recent term and the previous names were 'The Tour Gardens Farm' and the 'Girnal Croft'. Circa 1855 the orchard area was still in use as an orchard.Patience, Donald (1985). The Kirk of Kilmaurs. Kilmaurs Manse. p.23
The Glencairn Aisle
The aisle has seen a number of substantial changes since its construction, originally said to have been the chancel of the old church. The 1515 transcript of the 1413 'Prebenderies Charter' refers to the chapel of St Maura, indicating that the aisle may have originally been the private chapel of the Cunninghams of Kilmaurs Place. Drainage works in 2024 exposed courses of stone below the present ground level that may be the remnants of an older aisle or chapel.
After the Reformation in Scotland the emphasis of worship ceased to be centred on the altar and became focussed instead on preaching. Therefore, the chancels of churches at their east ends, previously an area set aside for use by the clergy, became redundant in that the pulpit, set on a side wall with a communion table in front, was the newly required layout.
In 1633 it was agreed that the principal landowners, as heritors, in the parish would receive the teinds and would pay the minister's stipend and pay for the maintenance of the manse and church. Many chancels at this time were converted into laird's lofts. The principal heritors also often converted the chancels into family mausoleums, sometimes blocking the area off from the main church. Burial within churches had become restricted, but the old chancels were seen as areas now set apart, and as a result crypts were excavated and multiple burials took place within them.
The mural monuments at Ballantrae and Largs in Ayrshire utilised parts of old abandoned churches. Originally it was joined to the church with only a hand rail or screen separating the two. At this time the aisle effectively formed the south transept of the church, and the mural monument was once therefore considered to be within the church proper. The Roberton Aisle was located in the area that is now the main north entrance and gave the church an irregular cruciform appearance.
After the aisle ceased to be used as the chantry and later the chancel, the church session in 1838 was forced to demolish the aisle's northern gable end due to its dangerous condition. This resulted in the aisle being shortened north-south by around six feet or 1.8m, with a new gable wall being built. The fact that the aisle roof and north gable end were not integrated into the church roof may suggest that the church was built onto the older aisle or chapel rather than vice versa. Some time later the church session decided to create an external door that would allow the minister to enter the church in the pulpit area, from the space between the aisle and the church. The door was removed in 1913 when the buildings were once again joined. This may account for the cross slabs being discovered in use as the door jambs and placed in the aisle for safekeeping.
In 1888 the section of wall at the back of the pulpit was taken down and rebuilt a few feet further out, thus forming an arched alcove where the Glencairn Aisle originally opened onto the church.
The mural monument had originally stood in the middle of the east wall of the old chancel; however, these changes meant that it no longer stands in a central position. At this time the aisle had a single small barred window and a metal yett or gate to bar access via the doorway that was less than six feet high.
A few courses of the side walls had fallen or were robbed of stone after the roof collapsed, the replacement stone at restoration being still discernable. The internal walls of the aisle were once covered in plaster. A divided pediment is once said to have crowned the monument and a section may survive amongst the carved stones on display with its original finial now located on the right hand side of the monument.
The gap between the buildings is mentioned by Adamson circa 1859 and is still shown on the OS map of 1895 and even later. The church underwent extensive alterations in 1888, with a tower being added, the old belfry on the west facing gable end removed, the stone stairs on the east facing gable end likewise removed, etc. An organ was added in later years and the air intake was located in the entryway to the aisle. In 1912 a photograph shows that the aisle and the church were not at that time joined, but in 1913 an organ was installed. To accommodate the bellows the church was extended to incorporate the aisle with a new wooden door and entryway added, making the internal yett or gate redundant. Two windows in the church that faced onto the aisle were blocked up at this time.
An upper chamber known as a 'retiring room' may once have existed, once possibly reached by an internal spiral staircase as no evidence of external steps exists. The partly blocked window in the south facing gable end is indicative of a room behind. However, the roof collapsed, and upon restoration a barrel vaulted stone roof was added below the slate roof, greatly reducing the size of the chamber above and blocking the light from the upper window, which, now being redundant, was filled in except for a gap left for ventilation. The vaulted roof significantly reduced the height available for the mural monument, as can be seen by the absence of the divided pediment and the crude cutting of the back of the coat of arms panel to adjust it to the curve of the newly vaulted ceiling. New windows would have been required and the present ones may date from the 1846 works.
Cavettos bearing the plain 'Y' 'Over Fork Over' heraldic symbol of the Cunninghams are located at both ends of the crow stepped south facing gable. A sun-dial on the east facing corner of the south gable of the aisle is dated 1753, and was given to the church by William Coates, the minister from 1739 to 1778. A corbel on the previous northern gable has the inscription 'Rd 1846' in reference to the date of the replacement of the roof. The building measures 7.5m or 25 feet by 7.0m or 23 feet and is built of grey ashlar masonry.