Tullibody Old Church

Overview

The shell of the church is an essentially medieval structure that stands complete to the wall head, despite an unusually complex history of alternating use and abandonment. Having been de-roofed by a troop of French soldiers in 1559/60 in order to provide timbers for a bridge, it probably remained without a roof through a union with Alloa parish that took place in about 1600. It was eventually re-roofed when it was adapted for use as a burial aisle for the Abercromby of Tullibody family, the most prominent monument to that family being an imposing monument to George Abercromby, who died in 1699, which is set against the internal east wall. The church was again re-roofed in 1824 and was subsequently fitted up as a preaching station in 1834, with further repairs in 1873. It is now flanked to the south by a building erected for a Free Church congregation in 1844, which is itself no longer in use for worship, and to the north by the parish church that was built to replace the old church in 1904; the latter was designed by Peter Macgregor Chalmers. The old church was finally unroofed in 1916, and after a period of neglect the fabric has recently been carefully consolidated.

Within the graveyard, which is now sadly vandalised, is a medieval stone coffin, together with a large number of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century monuments which demonstrate that the graveyard remained in use for burials even at periods when the church was not in use for worship.

Clackmannanshire Green Map
updated 03/2009 by Clackmannanshire Green Map Initiative