Little St Mungo's Chapel

About

Little St Mungo's Chapel (or, Kirk) was a church in Gallowgate, Glasgow, Scotland. Other names were St Mungo's Beyond the Walls, in the Fields, and Without the Walls. The epithets served to distinguish it from Glasgow Cathedral, also dedicated to St Mungo, the city's patron saint; the chapel was located beyond Gallowgate (or, East) Port, the eastern gate in the city walls.

Around the year 600, St Kentigern (another name for St Mungo) returned to Glasgow from exile in Wales. He preached in the open air to King Redrath and his chiefs and people. In one account, he spoke from a small elevation called Dowhill.

In another, the crowd could not hear him, but the ground miraculously upheaved itself to form Dowhill. The chapel was built on Dowhill in 1500 by David Cunningham, archdeacon of Argyll and provost of the Collegiate Church of Hamilton, who endowed it with lands and rents. It was surrounded by a churchyard (Scots: kirkyard).

Some trees which stood around it were called St Mungo's Trees, and a well by it St Mungo's Well. The well survived into the 20th century. The churchyard was enclosed by a substantial stone wall (Scots: dyke) with "boles".

A ground plan of the by-then long-gone...