Tundergarth Kirks Iconic Lockerbie Sites

Less than three miles from Lockerbie’s High Street sits a revered site that looks out over the field where the wreckage of the nose cone of Pan American flight 103 plummeted to the ground. Contained therein are three iconic historic buildings: a stately 1900 Gothic structure formerly a Church of Scotland; a stone ruin of an auld 1771 Celtic Kirk, and the Pan Am 103 Memorial Room which serves as a place to learn about and pay tribute to the 270 individuals killed as a result of the terrorist attack of December 21, 1988.

The graveyard holds the remains of generations of local residents, going back to Roman and Viking times, who lie at rest alongside three of the terrorist bombing victims: John Binning Cummock, Helga Rachael Mosey and Tomas Floro Van Tienhoven.

Within the Pan Am 103 Memorial Room is a gallery display of 270 victims color portrait photographs. Six banners present a true cross-section of humanity, ages two months to 82 years, from 21 nations, spanning the spectrum of ethnicities, socioeconomic sectors, and faith traditions. 

Two computers display the expansive Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Living Memorial digital photo gallery and 270 intimate multimedia profile pages containing personal photographs and recorded remembrances left by family members, friends, and former colleagues.

Visitors can learn about the terror victims and are invited to honor and upload tributes, write messages, and contribute photos, audios, videos, and other tokens of memory.  Visitors can write and read tributes in the massive leather guest book containing over fifty thousand messages left by visitors and mourners from around the world, since it opened in 1990. Additionally, visitors can read about the victims in the book "On Eagles' Wings."

This historic Tundergarth community site is now open to the public for worship services, cultural events, concerts, performances, and educational programs. Soon this historic place of pilgrimage will expand both its’ physical and digital sites. Visitors will be able to post a personal message of commemoration or tribute into the digital “We Remember” guest book display wall on our website to ensure we fulfill our collective promise to “Never Forget.”

Also, in the months ahead, the Tundergarth Kirks Trust, in collaboration with the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation, will begin to undertake the development of site restoration and preservation plans. The plans will include the rehabilitation of the 1771 kirk ruin into the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Museum housing an expanded exhibition to human dignity, courage, sacrifice, and contemplation, with future programs offering area walks and iconic site tours.