page_title: Torphichen Preceptory
section_title: The Preceptory
hierarchical_section_title: Torphichen Preceptory / The Preceptory
caption_attribution_description: English: The original HQ of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland. Kite aerial photograph First published: http://www.armadale.org.uk/preceptory.htm CC-BY West Lothian Archaeology
context_page_description: Torphichen Preceptory is a church in the village of Torphichen, West Lothian, Scotland. It comprises the remains of the preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland. The placename may be Gaelic in origin, e.g., "Tóir Féichín" or Brythonic, e.g., modern Welsh "tref fechan". The name "Tóir Féichín" with its Gaelic reference to the Boundary/Sanctuary stones set one mile around the village is most likely the true meaning of the village and Preceptory name rather than the modern Welsh which has no historical precedent that overrides the true meaning of those Neolithic sanctuary stones.
  The Preceptory was built over a vast wooden platform beneath which lay a man made island and causeway thought to date back before the first century AD before Christianity came to Scotland and may have been a place of Pagan worship with a circle of carved standing stones, around a main wooden building that served as a sanctuary and pagan roundhouse. The stones had been removed and buried to the East in a local field, but were discovered and destroyed by a local farmer, who feared archaeologists would disturb his fields.
context_section_description: The Preceptory was built in the 1140s around an existing church, possibly of early Christian origin. During the 13th Century the Preceptory was expanded, and the buildings which still stand were first erected. The complex included a cruciform church, with a nave, central tower, transepts and choir, whose tower and transepts remain, and a number of domestic buildings including a hospital. The church was extended again in the 15th Century, and a cloister completed, of which only the foundations remain. Very unusually, this was situated on the north side of the church (a feature seen elsewhere in Scotland only at Melrose Abbey).
  After the Reformation, the nave of the Preceptory church was converted for use as the parish kirk, with the rest of the buildings falling into disrepair. Nevertheless, the surviving crossing of the church (below the central tower) retains some of the best-preserved late 12th-early 13th century masonry in Scotland, with refined architectural detail. In 1756 the nave and domestic buildings were demolished, and a new T-plan kirk built. The kirk is furnished with early 19th Century box pews and galleries. The remnants of the Preceptory were used as a courthouse for a number of years. The central tower was re-roofed in 1947 and is now in the care of Historic Scotland (open in summer; entrance charge).
  A 'sanctuary stone' in the kirkyard marks the centre of an 'area of sanctuary' that once extended one Scots mile around. The east and west 'sanctuary stones' still stand in their original positions. It has been suggested that these stones are of much earlier origin than the medieval Preceptory, possibly being related to the important Neolithic henge and burial mound at Cairnpapple Hill, to the east.
  The large kirkyard has a fine collection of 17th–18th century headstones, with much intriguing 'folk art', including symbols of mortality, tools representing professions etc.
caption: Kite aerial photo of the Preceptory and church.
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