In the churchyard are two tombstones to Covenanter martyrs, one commemorating William Johnston, John Milroy and George Walker, who were executed in 1685, and the other, to Margaret Wilson and Margaret McLauchlan, who were executed by drowning at the Martyr’s Post that same year. Many interesting 17th and 18th century gravestones.
Diocese of Galloway, deanery of Farines. A petition by New Abbey to Edward II of England in 1308 for the grant of this church having failed, the church was granted to Whithorn Priory by Edward Bruce and confirmed to it by the crown in 1325 and 1451. The patronage alone was granted , the church remaining unappropriated at the Reformation, the patronage still held by the Priory which had failed to secure the grant of the church for its own uses. The church was rebuilt in 1730 on foundations of 13thC church.
The standing remains are those of the former parish church, rebuilt in 1730 on the foundations of a 13th century church dedicated to St Machute or Machutus, a sixth century Welsh saint. Machutus is said to have been baptized by Saint Brendan, and went on to found the abbey at St. Malo in Brittany. A fragment of a Northumbrian 8-9th century cross slab has been reused in the rerearch of the south window of the burial aisle. The buttress on the south-eastern corner of the church, topped by the worn carving of an animal’s head, is part of the 13th century church. The building has undergone many changes, as can be seen by the different shapes of the windows, and the blocked-up windows and doorways. The rebuilt church of 1730 was itself largely rebuilt in 1770, and went out of use when the current church was built. The current church was built in 1851 by Henry Roberts of London, with additions in 1913-14 by P MacGregor Chalmers. There is an 11th century Whithorn School cross shaft within the nave.
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