Old Kilpatrick / Auld Kilpaitrick / Cille Phàdraig / West Kilpatrick

Lewis (1846) mentions an ancient church of St. Patrick from which the place got its name , but the present church is from 1812 and there is no evidence of the old one. Chalmers' Caledonia (1890, vol. 6: 905) notes: "In 1649 the parish of Kilpatrick was divided and formed into two parishes, the one named Old Kilpatrick or West Kilpatrick, and the other which was called New Kilpatrick, or East Kilpatrick. The ancient church served as the parochial church of the western parish, and a new church was built for the eastern parish." Birth registers [assumed baptismal also?] start in 1688. "Old Kilpatrick was one of the original medieval parishes of Scotland. The site of the Parish Church is as old as the parish itself. The building you see pictured here was used until 1812 when, because of its advanced state of disrepair, it was demolished to make way for the church that still stands to this day. The pre-1812 edifice may not have been the very first on the site - the evidence is uncertain. Its architecture appears to be Norman, and some have said that the building may have dated back to the early 12th century. Some pre-Reformation features apparently survived that religious upheaval, including a stone font that stood just inside the front door. At one time there was an altar dedicated to St. Ninian, and doubtless there would have been features relating to St. Patrick after whom the church and parish were named" [source: www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/leisure-parks-events/tourism-and-visitor-attractions/museums-and-galleries/collections/buildings/places-of-worship/old-kilpatrick-parish-church-1893/] [accesed 7 July 2015]. There may be more information in John Bruce's History of the Parish of West or Old Kilpatrick (1893). Information on an object said to be related to the church at Old Kilpatrick appears in [www.wosas.net/news/gavinburn.html] [accessed 7 July 2015] with photographs and the following caption: "A large stone font has been identified next to the entrance to Gavinburn Library in Old Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire. The font had been re-used as a planter, and although it had occupied this position for a number of years, its significance had not previously been recognised [...] Measuring c. 50cm by c.55cm by c. 40cm high, the font had been shaped by random pecking. The tooling marks had been eroded by wear around the mainly smooth lip. The underside of the font was less even, suggesting that it had originally been mounted on a base. A drain which pierces the base of the bowl has been formed by pecking rather than drilling. The stone is likely to represent a baptismal font, and may well date from the Early Christian period. The parish church in Old Kilpatrick is the most obvious (but not the only) source for the font, it possibly being removed from the church at the Reformation for safe keeping and subsequently lost to history. [...] Gavinburn Library is scheduled for closure, and the font will be moved to the museum store of West Dunbartonshire Council Culture and Leisure Services on Poplar Road, Dumbarton." (ibid.) The object could very well have been used as a baptismal font or stoup, even though, in general terms, it is really too small for early baptism; a side draining is rather rare in early fonts, and these drains are often found in objects used as troughs in foarms and gardens, regardless of their origin; whether or not the hole was an original feature of this as a liturgical object, or for it as a trough is probably impossible to know.