Clean-up Session 1
An excellent start to the clean-up sessions with the focus on the inside of the ruins . A big thank you to Mr and Mrs Glendinning, Billy Lees, Sheena and Cameron. Six full bags of litter, leaves and twigs.
A good few hours work before the midgies came calling !
Auld Kirk
With the snow and its accompanying biting wind of recent weeks abating this bright Sunday afternoon proved to be a perfect time to visit the Auld Kirkyard. Members of the New Cumnock Parish Church , New Cumnock History Club and New Cumnock Liaison Group joined together in their mission to seek out the headstones of ministers and soldiers resting or remembered here. Our ‘Time Team’s’ activity soon attracted the attention of a passer-bye out enjoying one of the many lovely local walks and soon we had another pair of hands and eyes to help us in our cause.
Time Team
We split into three groups, each one armed with a sketch map of numbered lairs and set off to locate the headstones, note their condition and photograph them.
Planning the route
Off we go
Taking note
Who have we here?
Are you sure this is the right one?
Our minister with two of her predecessors
Far flung corners
Getting there
Successful conclusion
We successfully tracked down the headstones of six ministers and sixteen soldiers, somequicker than others. Many were legible while some were damaged or overturned but each made us stop and think.
Why we are here
During our search, other headstones caught the eye, carrying the surname or a farm name that whetted our appetite for further visits to our Auld Kirkyard.
The Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership (CAVLP) is a new Heritage Lottery funded project which aims to conserve, enhance and celebrate the unique landscape and cultural heritage of the Clyde and Avon Valleys.
The CAVLP are hosting a Living Kirkyard Event and invite people to come along and find out about the burial grounds of the Clyde Valley, what makes them special and how we might conserve them for the future.
Local Footnote: Now working with CAVLP is Sarah Sall, who of course until recently worked with East Ayrshire Coalfield Environment Initiative and was actively involved in the fantastic work on the New Cumnock Path Network.
Reverend Thomas Hunter and family
One of the many challenges of the project is making repairs and cleaning up five family lairs, the resting place of parishioners that have left their own mark on the history of New Cumnock.
The New Cumnock Liaison Group is currently in the process of completing a Statutory Declaration to enable the remedial work to be carried out.
If you are a descendant of any of these families then please get in touch and we would be delighted to hear from you.
NEW CUMNOCK HERITAGE 