Saints in Scottish Place-Names
Funded by a Leverhulme Trust Project Grant
St Oswald's Church, Whittingehame
Grid reference
NT 590 740 (assumed location)
Six-figure easting & northing
359000 674000
Latitude
55.95731287884029
Longitude
-2.6567357304256816
Altitude (metres)
90
County
East Lothian
Nearby places
Whittingehame, parish (0.44 miles)
Garvald & Bara, parish (1.92 miles)
Garvald, former parish, Garvald & Baro (1.92 miles)
Rood Well, Dunbar, Stenton (2.06 miles)
St Baldred's Whirl, Prestonkirk (2.3 miles)
Object Classification
Ecclesiastical
Is linear feature?
No
Notes
NMRS records the presence of a former chapel or church of Whittingehame here, and a long-cist burial ground containing around 200 burials is also recorded nearby, in or near a field called Kirklands. See NMRS Canmore ID 56402 and 57842. The evidence for this church or chapel being dedicated to St Oswald is found in John Major's 'History of Greater Britain' (p. 93), in which he writes 'One Church I know founded in his honour in Lothian: Whttingham, to wit, distant two miles from Gleghornie' (this latter being Major's birthplace, about two miles from North Berwick) (cited by Mackinlay 1914, 234). Major was in a good position to know the dedication of this local church.
Relationships with other parishes
Within Whittingehame, parish
Names
1 head-name linked to this place ?Ecclesia Sancti Oswaldi
Head name
Ecclesia Sancti Oswaldi
Place
St Oswald's Church, Whittingehame
Certainty that this name applies to this place
Certain
The status of this name is
Hypothetical
Is this a current OS form? ?
No
Is this the original referent of the place?
Yes
Is the association of this name to this object hypothetical?
Yes
Saints in this place-name
Oswald (ns) (certain)
Oswald king of Northumbria (certain)