Church of the Week
Tundergarth, Dumfries & Galloway
Tundergarth Church in Dumfries & Galloway, our Church of the Week, is a place of pilgrimage that creates a warm and welcoming space for visitors from far and near. On 21 December 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, the nose of the plane landed right outside Tundergarth Church. The church quickly became a staging post and warm refuge for Scotland Police, the British Army and the RAF teams as they searched for the bodies of the passengers and crew. Local women sorted through the luggage and tried to reunite it with families and loved ones of the victims. The funeral services of several flight 103 passengers took place in the church and three were laid to rest in the churchyard. Almost 40 years later, the church and the community here are still keeping the memory of those passengers alive. Adjacent to the church is the Remembrance Room, dedicated to the victims of the bombing. The church is a place of pilgrimage for the relatives and friends of the victims and continues to be a sacred site for remembrance services, despite the challenge of staying open amid storms, mounting repair costs, and a changing landscape for churches in Scotland and across the UK. In 2024, the church was a winner in our National Church Awards. The judges were impressed that, amid stories of closure from across the UK, volunteers here worked hard to keep the building open – a testament to the resilience of the community as well as the remembrance of disaster.
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