Publication Account
Date 2004
Event ID 1019656
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019656
This ancient church has been rebuilt a number of times, most recently in 1900-02 by Dunn and Watson for Sir Donald Currie. The c. 1886 photograph shows a much more modest structure with the 1768 bellcote on the west gable. The architects designed a lager simple Scots Gothic church of nave and chancel, with a recreation of the original bellcote on the chancel arch. The church retains the original architect desgined furnishings and fittings, and detailed drawings held in the NMRS include 'the deisgn for the new elders seats on the east wall'. The whole produces a charming arts and crafts gesamtkunstwerk. The church was recorded by the Threatened Building Survey prior to a programme of restoration, which included the relocation of the 1768 bellcote. The 1765 Johannes Specht bell is in the church. Other finds housed within the church are rather more ancient. They include a Celtic hand bell, first recorded in the manse in 1881, and fragments of four early medieval cross-slabs. Three of the fragments were found in the fabric of the church when it was rebuilt 1900-02, while the fourth came from the wall of a cottage nearby. In addition to the cross-slabs. there are several cross-incised stones in the burial-ground. These find evidently imply an early Christian site of some significance, and aerial photography has revealed that the church stands roughly at the centre of a large rectilinear enclosure, perhaps the vallum of a monastery.
Information from ‘RCAHMS Excursion Guide 2004: Commissioners' Field Excursion, Perth and Angus, 31 August – 2 September 2004’.
