27 September 2025 (09:00 - 12:00)
27 September 2025 (13:00 - 16:30)
The parish church of St Mungo was established in the 14th century. It was enlarged and the tower raised in 1680-2 by the master mason Tobias Bauchop, whose house, built in 1695, still stands in Kirkgate. Around 1700, John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, built a private aisle with a burial vault on the north side of the church. He was exiled after leading the 1715 Jacobite Uprising in Scotland; in his later years he planned his own elaborate memorial to be erected in the church. He died in 1732, his body was brought home and he was buried in the family vault, but the memorial was never built.
St Mungo's later became very overcrowded and was condemned in 1816: most of it was demolished and many stones were reused to build the new parish church in Bedford Place.
The Mar & Kellie Mausoleum was designed by James Gillespie Graham for John Francis Erskine and was built on the site of the Mar Aisle. Some memorial plaques for members of the Erskine family were saved from the old kirk and reused in the mausoleum, the original ceiling of which was painted brightly and decorated with flowers and Rococo panels. It was partly restored in 1994-6.
The old kirkyard contains a fascinating collection of early trade gravestones. The adjacent Greenside Cemetery was opened in 1853, by which time the old kirkyard. had become full. Both contain fine memorials for many of the people responsible for the development of Alloa as one of Britain’s earliest industrial towns
There will be guided tours by members of Clackmannanshire Field Studies Society..
The entrances to the Old Kirkyard and Mausoleum are level, but part of the Old Kirkyard is on sloping, uneven ground, with closely packed gravestones, making access challenging for people with mobility difficulties. Access around the paths in Greenside Cemetery is more even.

Address
Kirkgate, Alloa, FK10 1EP