View NW of St Medan's ruined C12th church, C19th mausoleum & churchyard, Kirkmaiden-in-Fernis, Monreith, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK.
View NW of St Medan's ruined C12th church, C19th mausoleum & churchyard, Kirkmaiden-in-Fernis, Monreith, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK. Dedicated to legendary C7th/8th Irish princess St Medan (Medana) who lived here as a hermit. Pilgrims came by land & sea to visit this Early Christian site & bathe in her healing spring (well) on the foreshore to gain miraculous cures of eye & skin complaints. In the graveyard are buried some of the dead from a sea battle fought in 1758 off the Mull of Galloway between the Royal Navy & the French during the Seven Years' War (1756-63), including Francois Thurot, captian of a French privateer. During the C19th, the chancel of the ruined church was converted to a mausoleum for the Maxwells of Monrieth where Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet (1845-1937), paternal grandfather of author Gavin Maxwell (1914-69) is buried. A rock, just visible on the cliff centre rear, bears a life-size bronze otter, a memorial to Gavin Maxwell made by Penny Wheatley in 1978. When revisiting his childhood haunts, Maxwell would exercise his tame otter, Mijbil, on the beach of Monreith Bay: "These places the boy loved - the man celebrated."
Size: 3715px × 2656px
Location: St Medan's Kirk, Kirkmaiden, Monreith, Port William, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 12th, 1758, 18th, 19th, battle, bay, beach, britain, burial, captain, century, chapel, christian, church, churchyard, cliff, coastal, cures, district, dumfries, early, francois, galloway, gavin, glasserton, graves, great, headstones, healing, herbert, hermit, kingdom, kirk, kirkmaiden, kirkmaiden--fernis, machars, mausoleum, maxwell, maxwells, medan, medana, medans, medieval, memorial, monreith, parish, pilgrim, pilgrimage, place, port, ruined, scotland, sea, sir, site, southwest, st, thurot, uk, united, war, wigtown, william, years
