the parish churches of Bonhill, Fintry, and Strathblane, and also held considerable lands in the neighbourhood of Dumbarton, which yielded to Kilwinning at the Reformation an annual revenue of £66, 13s. 4d. sterling.
The founder erected the college for the repose of the souls of "her dearest husband, her father, and her sons," who had been slain by their relative James I. of Scotland, under the belief that they had been to blame in connection with his long imprisonment in England.
After the Reformation the college was allowed to fall into ruin, and its materials were gradually carried off. In 1858, in order to make room for the railway station, the last remnants of the edifice, one of the pier arches and its piers (Fig. 1360) were removed from their position on a grassy knoll, from which a fine view of the Leven was visible, and re-erected as the gateway of a house.[1]
CHAPEL AT THE KIRKTON OF KILMAHEW,[2]
Dumbartonshire.
This structure is an interesting example of a private ecclesiastical
foundation. The remains of the chapel stand in an ancient churchyard,
on a knoll close to a small stream, about one and a half miles north-west
from Cardross Railway Station. The building has attached to it the
piece of land with which it was endowed, and is surrounded by the estate
of Kilmahew, the property of John William Burns, Esq., to whom we are
indebted for bringing the structure under our notice.
This chapel is believed to have been erected for the convenience of the inhabitants of the locality, owing to the great distance of their parish church at Roseneath, and also of the church of the neighbouring parish of Cardross. The Napiers were proprietors of Kilmahew from about 1300. John Napier was one of the defenders of Stirling Castle in 1304, along with Sir William Olyfard. In 1406 William Napier obtained a charter of the half lands of Kilmahew, "where the chapel is situated."[3]
A chapel existed here in 1370, when a charter was granted to Roger Cochran of the lands of Kilmahew, "with the chapel thereof." In 1467 a new chapel was erected by Duncan Napier, then proprietor of Kilmahew, who endowed it with an annual rent of 40s. and 10d. out of tenements in Dumbarton. In the above year the new chapel, dedicated to St. Mahew,
- ↑ Information regarding the history of the above structures has been kindly supplied by Mr. Donald M'Leod, author of The God's Acres of Dumbarton, and other works relating to the district.
- ↑ The particulars of the history of this chapel are taken from Irving's Dumbartonshire.
- ↑ The ancient castle of the Napiers at Kilmahew is illustrated in The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 443.
