Publication Account

Date 1978

Event ID 1018035

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018035

The first mention of the church at Montrose (Salorch) is in 1161 x 1162 (Barrow, 1960, 232). It was included among Brechin Cathedral's earliest benefices (Low, 1891, 23). The old parish church was described as a 'Gothic Structure rendered very gloomy and irregular by the large additions to the gallery and to the building itself' (Sinclair, 1793, v, 32). Francis Douglas also described it as an 'irregular' structure which was 'gloomy and disagreeable' on the inside (1782, 64). That church had been extensively refurbished in the early seventeenth century (Low, 1891, 112) and in 1690 the magistrates and kirk session met jointly to consider the ruined nature of the choir, but the only repairs carried out on that occasion included propping up the walls with trees brought from Edzell (Low, 1891, 136). The present church was constructed in 1791 and the steeple was added in 1832.

Information from ‘Historic Montrose: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1978).