Burial Vault, Churchyard, Old Parish Church, The Cross, Beith

This burial vault, part of the Old Parish Church’s churchyard, dates back to the late 16th century with significant alterations in the mid-18th century, as evidenced by date stones from 1593 and 1754. Originally a parish church, the structure was truncated in the early 19th century, its crowstepped gable end now serving as a mausoleum. The vault is square in plan and features a blocked, bolection-moulded doorpiece with saw-tooth skews. It is situated within a burial ground containing interesting early 18th-century tombstones, all enclosed by a rubble boundary wall.

The Old Parish Church itself has a central, square-headed doorway with a roll-moulded arch and a boarded door, set into the gable. There are two round-headed windows on the first floor, with plain leaded glazing. A clock, dating to approximately 1794, sits above the doorway, and a small, square bellcote was added around 1850. The church bell dates from 1614 and was refounded in 1734. Tombstones are set into and against the walls on three sides of the church. The building is constructed from rubble sandstone with dressed margins, and has a pitched roof covered in grey slates, with a stone ridge.

The interior of the vault serves as the mausoleum of the Cochran-Patrick family.

The vault itself has a simple doorway on the west elevation, flanked by narrow slit windows. Tombstones are set against the walls, and the roof is stone-slabbled. The building was built on the site of a pre-Reformation chapel, known as the Auld Kirk. The churchyard provides a valuable green space in the center of Beith, featuring many early 18th-century tombstones, alongside decorative 19th-century examples, including those in memory of the Spier family, carved in white marble in a high Gothic style. Some sections of the boundary wall to the north have collapsed and some tombstones are deteriorating. It is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858.