Medieval Kintyre Project Press Release 2nd October 2025
The Medieval Kintyre Project is delighted to welcome Dr Peter Burman MBE FSA as our Patron. Peter Burman visited Kintyre for the first time last week and saw for himself our three ruined churches, their condition and our proposals for their conservation and maintenance. He also saw the emergency works already undertaken at Killean, Kilkivan & Kilchenzie Churches.
On Thursday evening at a gathering in the Council Chambers, Campbeltown Town Hall, Marion McDonald chair of the Medieval Kintyre Project formally introduced Peter Burman as our Patron to Kintyre. He graciously accepted the appointment before speaking about his passion for our natural and cultural landscapes, ancient monuments and historic buildings, and ancient churches in particular.
For those of who don’t know him, Dr Burman lives in Falkland, Fife, and is a well-respected British Architectural Historian. For twenty-two years he worked for the Council for the Care of Churches (now the Cathedrals & Church Buildings Council), serving as its General Secretary from 1977 onwards.
During that time he was joint organiser with Marcus Binney of a major exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum entitled Change & Decay, the future of our churches. Afterwards he was Director of the Centre for Conservation Studies at the University of York (attached to Architecture and Archaeology).
He came to Scotland in 2003 to be Director of Conservation and Property Services at the National Trust for Scotland and later returned to teaching and research as Professor of Cultural Heritage Management at Cottbus University, State of Brandenburg, Germany, in the Department of World Heritage Studies.
During that time his home base remained Scotland. He has advised on and worked with prestigious buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral, as Chair of the Fabric Committee for twenty years; Lincoln Cathedral, as Arts & Heritage Adviser St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle (Fabric Committee); Rosslyn Chapel (Project Committee for the five-year programme of external conservation and repair) and the Burrell Collection (seminars for staff members). He has been a Guardian of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and chair of SPAB Scotland.
He was one of the founding trustees of SAVE Britain’s Heritage. A trustee of Hopetoun House, South Queensferry and for twelve years was also Archivist to the extensive private Archive there.
He chairs the Scottish Association of Country House Archivists. He is a passionate European and a great believer in working internationally in the interests of our shared ecclesiastical heritage which is also a strong ingredient in the offer Scotland is able to make for cultural and religious tourism.
A spokesperson for the project said, ‘We are fortunate indeed to have a professional of this calibre and range as our Patron. Dr Burman will visit us again in the near future, when it is hoped we will have funding in place to start on the much larger project of consolidation and preservation of the three 12th century church ruins and their large collection of 34 medieval grave markers.’
Ms Krystyna Pytasz, our expert conservation architect, also spoke about her recent findings. During her detailed research on Killean Church, Tayinloan, Ms Pytasz has come to the conclusion that Killean was very likely extended in the 12th century to become a Cathedral. This is a very exciting discovery for the group and we are keen to acquire more information about Ms Pytasz’s research as it becomes available.
Image above, some of the Medieval Kintyre Project Team; From back row, left to right: Donald McDonald, Ken Jones, Les Oman, Ross Burgess, Nic Boyes (expert medieval stone conservator), Dr Peter Burman MBE, Mike Peacock – Front row: Val Nimmo (secretary MKP), Maureen Bell, Krystyna Pytasz (expert conservation architect), Katherine Oman, Marion McDonald (chair MKP).
Header Image is, from left to right, Ross Burgess, Dr Peter Burman MBE and Krystyna Pytasz on a visit to Campbeltown Museum.
Dr Burman’s visit was made possible with a grant from MACC.
