Strathbrock Parish Kirk is situated on the North side of Uphall, just off the Ecclesmachan Road. The parish used to contain the nearby Strathbrock Castle, now disappeared. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
Strathbrock Parish Kirk
As a placename, Strathbrock derives from the Brythonic language (Old Welsh), and would, in modern Welsh, be known as Y Strad Broch, which literally means "The River-valley of the Badger". The simple reason for this is the name of the Brock's Burn (Scots for "Badger's Brook"), which runs through the parish and gives its name to the adjacent town of Broxburn. From Brythonic broch, we derive modern Scots brock, hence Brock's Burn and Broxburn. Of course, the Gàidhlig word for badger is broc, and there are many Gàidhlig placenames in this area of West Lothian, but the first element of the placename, strath, is Brythonic rather than Goidelic, and tends to therefore suggest the Brythonic derivation for brock as well.
Strathbrock Kirk is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was built in the twelfth century. According to Rev. George Boag, writing in The New Statistical Account of Scotland in 1843:
The bell still in use is that brought from the steeple of the old church, and bears date 1441. The inscription on the bell is "Campanum Sancti Nicholai de Strathbroke."[1]
However, according to CANMORE, a medieval inscription reading "Sancti Nicolai de Strathbroke" is to be found on a basin now at Carlowrie House to the East of Kirkliston.
Structural modifications were carried out at various points in history, including the addition of the chancel in the thirteenth century, the Shairp Aisle in 1620, major general reworkings in 1878, and restoration work in 1937-1938.
Strathbrock Kirk from the West, Showing the Norman Tower
The kirk's tower on the West end contains the basic elements of the original Norman tower, although the West door is a modern reconstruction which is actually slightly less decorative than most original Norman doors.
The nave in the centre of the kirk and the chancel on the East end also contains elements of the original twelfth century architecture.
The Chancel (East End)
On the North-east side of the kirk lies the 1620 Shairp Aisle, along with a seventeenth century staircase between the aisle and chancel, which now leads to a window, rather than a door, in the North wall of the chancel.
Chancel and Shairp Aisle
One other Norman remnant is the arched door in the South wall, which presumably acted as the model for the somewhat less decorative main door reconstruction in the tower. A similar arrangement can also be seen at the nearby Ecclesmachan Kirk.
Arched Norman Door
In the 1780s a fifteenth century font was found while digging foundations, and this font is now used in the Catholic church in Uphall.
photos of the font to follow...
footnotes
[1] George Boag, "Parish of Uphall" (1843), in The Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1834-45), Vol.2, p.88.