Doors open days 2023 – St. Mary’s & Old Parish Church, Hawick

There has been a Church on this site for over 800 years. The first Church building, in Norman style, was erected in 1214 and consecrated in memory of St Mary by Adam, Bishop of Caithness.

In 1763 the Church was rebuilt in the T-shaped cross that we have today, which makes use of the long wall to gather the congregation around both the Communion Table and Pulpit, following the principles of the Reformation. The clock-tower, however, is the only part of the building which survived a fire in 1880. The present Church building, a replica of the one that was burned down, was built in 1883. Beneath the Church are vaults where for nearly two hundred years the Scotts of Buccleuch, major Border landowners since the 16th century and ancestors of the Duke of Buccleuch, were buried. At the time of the 1763 re-building the vaults were sealed and there is no longer any access.