Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1016456

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016456

St Mary's, Cullen, is characteristic of the last phase of the medieval church in Scotland, which saw the foundation of many collegiate churches for the saying of masses for the souls of their benefactors. In 1536, a south aisle, endowed by Elena Hay, was added to a sim ple rectangular medieval church. In 1543 the chapel was raised to a coll egiate church with endowment from, among others, Alexander Ogilvie of that ilk; the chancel was lengthened.

Ogilvie died in 1554 and his ornate tomb is in the chancel. It consists of a canopied recess containing an armour-clad effigy on top of a tomb-chest with weeping figures on its front. The crockets of the arch of the recess and the pinnacles above are all late Gothic in style. By contrast, the cherubs on the back wall of the recess and the medallion panels above are early Renaissance in inspiration. There is also a sacrament house (presented by Ogilvie) in the north wall.

The south wall of the chancel is occupied by a laird's loft of 1602, complete with armorial panels. It represents the continuing influence of the principal family (the Ogilvies, by then baronets) on the affairs and even the form of the kirk. On the north wall is a marble monument to one of the later Ogilvies, James, fourth earl of Findlater and Seafield, one of the architects of the Union of Parliaments in 1707.

The tombs, which were misappropriated and their dates recut by the second earl of Fife (see no. 2), have now been returned to Cullen.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Aberdeen and North-East Scotland’, (1996).