Watch: What are the Govan Stones? The Medieval monuments in a Southside church

Glasgow is vocal on its immediate history with markers throughout the neighbourhood to remind and educate passersby on its contributions to the Industrial Revolution and activities that have occurred since - statues, plaques, memorials to signify its global role in shipbuilding, architecture, politics and world wars. However, what is less frequently discussed is the ancient history that occurred on this land, that goes beyond the existence of even Scotland. 

Govan is the geographical centre of a Medieval kingdom, holding the land’s largest collection of Viking gravestones, known today as the Govan Stones situated in and around the Govan Old Church. Findings from archeological diggings suggest the site has been a burial ground since at least the sixth century. 

We visited the church to find out more about the artefacts. We spoke to Frazer Capie from the Govan Heritage Trust. You can watch our video above:

“The stones are a collection of early medieval sculptures. They take in a variety of different types. We have, essentially, what are left of standing sculpted crosses, the walls are filled with the recumbent grave monuments - the elite grave markers of the aristocracy of what becomes known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde.

“At the Western part of the church we’ve got Hogback gravestones which are related to Viking activity. We’ve also got a unique monolithic sarcophagus, which is a sarcophagus carves out of a single piece of stone and that is really the sculpture that classifies our collection.”