Rosneath Old Graveyard - Introduction

During the latter months of 1987 Jack Read and his colleague Duncan B Brown, who was the treasurer of St. Modans church, discussed the possibility of surveying and recording the old Graveyard. There was no motive other than to provide an occupation in their retirement. But tragically and suddenly, Duncan died on the 12th December of that year. With that, the idea might have been shelved indefinitely.

However, early in 1988 the members of the Rosneath Peninsula Group of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship were given a guided tour of St. Modan's Church by Church Elder James Vernal and followed it up with a guided tour of the old Graveyard and the ruined Church 1780 - 1853. While those of us who took part in the latter tour were impressed with what we saw, we were dismayed with the natural erosion which had taken place and which was obviously continuing to take place. Here, in this hallowed place, was much of Rosneath's history and not only was much of it lost but was still being lost.

At a meeting which followed the tours it was decided to conduct a survey and to record all that could be recorded. Because 1989 was being regarded as the 21st anniversary of the foundation of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship and being called `The Year of Involvement` it was agreed that this project would be the group's contribution towards the celebration.

The first move was to get the approval of the Church and this gave us an additional purpose - to provide the Church with the end result to retain for their records. The next was to get permission from the Superintendant of Cemeteries - as recommended by the Kirk session. He readily approved and also advised that we communicate with Mr Hopner who handled the Genealogical department of Dumbarton District Library. Mr Hopner provided copies of a survey which had been done in 1968 by a couple by the name of Mitchell. This only comprised stones with dates prior to 1855 and listed only names and dates; not the full inscriptions, most of it with abbreviations and as was shown by our own survey, fraught with error. ( This was possibly forgiveable as they must have done it in a hurry - they surveyed many local cemeteries ). As they had done their survey for the Scottish Genealogical Society in Edinburgh, we contacted them. They showed a decided interest and asked for a copy of our completed survey and also recommended that we seek advice available in booklets which they had for sale by Betty Wilsher of St. Andrews. We did buy one and also made contact with Betty Wilsher who wished us well.

and so to the project:-

The Survey

Although not essential to the task, it was decided to do a survey of the graveyard so as to determine once and for all the exact shape. By doing so we would be able to prove that it was not round; that it was oval. The end result was to some extent a surprise. As will be seen from the diagram it proved ovaloid with two short straight stretches and the remainder always curved. Certainly it held up the story that there were no corners in which the devil could hide.

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