St Helen's On Lea

St. Helen's Church, Old Cambus, is more just 'ch', as there's a huge gap where the connection of the 'urch' should be, glueing the ancient building together!

Teetering on top of a red sandstone cliff on the coastal path, it's like the end of a house of cards that's blown away.

History has it that the church was established by three princesses fleeing the violence of war in Northumberland who were trying to get the Firth of Forth.

Ravaging storms were said to have stopped them in their tracks, and they were forced to take shelter by the Bishop of Coldingham Priory.

To repay his care and kindness, they set about the construction of three churches at St Abb's Head, St Bee's in Dunbar and St Helen's at Old Cambus...these lasses clearly loved a windswept, rockface challenge!

Records show a church here since the 7th century, though the ruins of this building are later.

I first became aware of this gable end of a church as the sun was setting on my way home from Dunbar. Pulling off into a kind of no man's land, with a road leading only to the disused Old Cambus Quarry; a moonlike landscape of old shales and muddy sandstones, which were formed from the sediments underneath the ancient Lapetus Ocean which existed over 420 million years ago and which divided Scotland from England.

Although stark and seemingly bereft of life and detail, this is a geographical goldmine! For it was close to here at Siccar Point that in 1788 James Hutton, a self-taught geologist, discovered that the earth was indeed eons old and not just 6,000 years old as the bible had prescribed.

The red rock here is now suffocated with gorse and thistles, but taking the line of desire through the kissing gate (and not forgetting to kiss your walking companion), you quickly come to the site of St Helen's.

It's fenced off and seems a little unwelcoming and standoffish, but reading at home the following day brought to light why this was the case.

This is a shell of a chapel. It's over 8 meters high at its west-facing pinnacle and not much else! But this was a fascinating find despite the absence of walls and a roof.

Old Cambus, also known as Aldcambus derives its name from the Gaelic for old and camus, meaning creek or bay.

In a precipitous position perched above the fierce north sea, biting at the rocks below is Pease Bay. It's hard to imagine who'd come here. Who'd make up the congregation? There don't seem to have been people around in any great numbers for miles.

St Helen's, Lea is a church of two halves. There was a chancel and a nave, which records show were barrel vaulted.

These ruins are 12th century. Things may have been different then, but the find in 1908 of hogback stones in the churchyard suggests that a church has stood in this specific spot since the 11th century, and would have been owned by Durham Cathedral. However, in the 1600 and 1700s, the church fell into disrepair, so it's even more amazing to think there are visible and significant remains still here today.

The 1908 archaeological dig helped to reveal the initial layout of the church and architectural features, which helped to date the building to approximately 1150, but also highlighted significant features like window arches bearing chevron crosses and chip carving, which would also help to date the building.

It was frustrating not to be able to get closer to see the inside of the building, but it's clear now that it's been fenced off to protect the precious age of the structure and its significant hogback stones, which have fallen into an overgrown state and have substantially subsided into the land below.

Sadly, the location and lack of donation probably stop this from being high on anyone's priority list for saving. Deerfence will have to do for now!

As we circumnavigated the structure, the building appeared to widen and diminish in size and visibility.

Looking east towards the one huge remaining gable end, we could see a series of what appeared to be puncture marks in the masonry. These seemed conscious and to have served a purpose.

Take a closer look. What do they seem like to you?

They'd have made perfect nesting sites for rock doves and pigeons, but my Pevsner guide handily explains that these are putlog holes!

Putlog holes were structures to hold timbers during the construction of the building, a little like scaffolding. The wood that would have been held there would have rotted away over the years, leaving these apertures open to the elements today.

Turning another corner with views heading up to Dunglass, and the power station at Skateraw, it's a clear reminder that time has moved on.

We could see a pile of grave stones. It looked like they'd been consciously moved and heaped up, perhaps to make way for pasture and crops.

There's a big blue reminder of the sea beyond.

The walls that now protect this religious relic are themselves tumbledown, and are perhaps the recycled stones that once held the hymn inside the church.

The well trodden path around the perimeter of the church was a gratifying reminder that there are other folks interested in ruins. It's not just me, though my twenty year old self would have thrown the car into reverse and laughed at the suggestion of churchy searching! Some things about getting older are better eh?

On leaving the path around St Helen's, I passed a huge boulder with this strange metal plate affixed. I couldn't make out what it was, why it was there or what its significance was and couldn't find anything online. Older doesn't necessarily mean wiser, but curious-er!