[Illustration: FIG. 731.--Cockpen Church. Plan.]
The ruins of the ancient parish church of Cockpen stand in a burial
ground about one mile south from the modern parish church, which is
situated about a mile from Dalhousie Railway Station. The walls of the
old church are in tolerable preservation, but they have been so much
altered, probably soon after the Reformation, so as to render them
suitable for Presbyterian worship, that the original features are almost
obliterated. The structure (Fig. 731) is a simple oblong, 65 feet 6
inches in length by 15 feet 2 inches in width. There are some remains of
narrow lancet windows at the east end, but they have been much altered,
one of them being widened to form an outside doorway to a gallery. The
side windows have been similarly altered and new square-headed windows
inserted, so that almost all trace of the original features is lost. The
ruins are also so completely covered with a dense growth of ivy that the
details of the architecture cannot be properly investigated. Some burial
vaults have been thrown out from the side walls, probably in the
sixteenth century. From the scanty materials available it may be
inferred that the original church was a structure of the thirteenth
century.