Jamie Carruthers, 13th of Dormont, the current head of the senior branch of the family, is looking for support from all round the world for a heritage project which is a real part of Carruthers history.

Little Dalton Kirk, as our photographs show, is now ruined. It was built in the fifteenth century on the site of and perhaps including some of the stonework of an earlier thirteenth century kirk, to serve the spiritual needs of the village of Little Dalton. This largely abandoned settlement lies in the upper valley of the Dalton Burn, not far from the site of Holmains, now just a mound, but the seat of the senior branch of the family between 1548 and 1809.

The kirk ceased in 1633 to be a place of worship as the community declined; at one time it had been able to turn out 100 fighting men for its lord. The graveyard was used for a long time after and the latest identifiable headstone is dated 1788. Sadly now there are only five houses in the valley.

As the photographs, taken by local historian George Green, reveal, a surprising amount of the building still stands. The walls remain up to the window lintels and it has some interesting architectural features, together with nearly twenty headstones from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument with Category B Listed Status, and its mediaeval origin makes it of some importance to archaeologists and historians. Many others will enjoy the atmosphere and its interesting features, and it is an important part of the Carruthers family heritage. Many of us will have ancestors who worshipped within its walls.

We cannot fully restore the kirk, but we would like to embark on a programme of consolidation work, to remove the vegetation which has taken root, to stabilise the remaining masonry and to offer it some protection against the ravages of the elements. The graveyard needs work too, and we would like to provide easy access for visitors from the public highway, which passes some hundreds of yards away.

Solway Heritage, the local body which deals with this sort of project, costed the work two years ago at £30,000. Inflation and further weathering are likely to have pushed this up. This would pay for expert archaeological supervision, specialist work on the masonry, a lay-by on the highway, a fenced-off access path and future maintenance and management.

We hope to raise much of this sum from grant aid, but the more we can find the easier it will be to find the aid. So we have set up the Little Dalton Kirk Trust. Jamie Carruthers, as Chairman, his cousin Christopher, representing the family, the Rev. Sandy Stoddart, Minister of Dalton, and Mrs Ann Lockerbie, as Chairman of the Dalton and Carrutherstown Community Council, are the Trustees.

Please vist our donations page to find out more