The churches on this page are significant to my family's history.
 
 
    Dalserf parish church is where my g-g-g-grandmother went to church.  Dalserf is a beautiful old weaver's village on the banks of the Clyde river, with a 300 year old chapel, originally built as a narrow rectangle but now a T-shape.  It was a Covenanter's church - I wrote about the covenanters in my history of the Gilchrist name.
    This is Lesmahagow parish church, where William went to church, and where all the family walked many miles there and back every Sunday, from Crossford up over the hill to the river Nethan and past Craignethan Castle, following the river valley most of the way.

    Lesmahagow kirk was a big old "preaching barn" in William's day - they didn't believe in any kind of comfort or fancy ornamentation, no pews or stained glass windows, definitely no paintings or statues.  It was built in 1140 on the site of an earlier abbey; the village dates to 909 according to one resident, and the priory ruins behind the church date to 1104.  The church was rebuilt in 1809 by the "Heritors" - apparently every church had a formal group of these, which I think were simply the significant church members descended from the most successful families in each parish.  Apparently it is quite a bit prettier inside nowadays, but it was locked up when I was there.
    This is the church at the Royal Burgh of Lanark, which is just a short walk down the river from Crossford, where William lived with his family.  The statue on the front of the church is William Wallace, the Braveheart, who some also believe was the original Robin Hood.  All the scenery, events and people that you see in the movie Braveheart, the dress and customs, were from our ancestral area.
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