Undiscovered Scotland

 

The Auld Kirk Yaird in Selkirk lies immediately to the south of the town centre and can be accessed up an easily overlooked set of stone steps from the town’s main car park. They are well worth looking out for, because this is a fascinating place.

Christian worship here could date back as far as the 500s, when the local Selgovae tribe established a church that could well have been on this site. In 1113, the future King David I probably used this earlier church or its successor as the basis for a Tironensian abbey he endowed in Selkirk. In 1128, the community decided to move instead to Kelso and set up Kelso Abbey. Despite this setback, the church that stood here at the time continued in use. (Continues below image...)

 

In 1297, William Wallace was appointed Guardian of Scotland at the “Kirk o’ the Forest”, thought to have been the church on this site and the precursor of the one whose remains you can see today. The church was repaired or rebuilt several times after damage caused during the Wars of Independence.

The Auld Kirk whose walls still stand was built following the demolition of the pre-Reformation church here. It was smaller than the building it replaced, though had added accommodation for worshippers in galleries. It served as Selkirk's parish church from 1747 to 1861, when it became redundant and had its roof removed.

Since then the shell of the church has served as a burial aisle for prominent local families, most notably the Murrays of Philiphaugh, distantly related to Franklin D Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the USA.

The Auld Kirk Yaird is home to an excellent collection of old gravestones, many carrying the symbols of mortality that were so common in post-Reformation Scotland.