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Field Visit
Date 6 April 1989
Event ID 1103262
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103262
Rossie church comprises a nave and chancel, and measures 20.5m from W to E by 6.9m transversely over all. Its walls measure 0.85m in thickness and are of a random rubble build. Although almost entirely rebuilt about 1870 (T S Robertson, architect), apparently on an earlier plan but with the addition of a S porch, buttresses, bell-cote and gothic
detail, the medieval fabric of the N and E walls remains largely intact. There is a chamfered offset on the E gable at the height of the main wall-head and the N entrance (arch-pointed, of two orders) is probably original. Restored for use as a memorial chapel for the Kinnaird family, the interior contains a fine collection of 19th-century funerary sculpture, a Pictish cross-slab (found about 1890 within the burial-ground, NO23SE 4.02) and, in the floor of the chancel, an incised slab of Tournai marble; the latter depicts a framed knight and lady and may date from about 1260. To the S of the church, there are a number of 17th- and 18th-century gravestones. The abthain of Rossie is on record in 1153 x 1159 and, given the presence of the Pictish cross-slab, may indicate the site of a Celtic foundation. A church is on record by 1160 x 1162, and was consecrated and dedicated to St Leonard the Martyr and St Coman, Confessor in 1243. In 1670 the parish was united with that of Inchture and, by 1792, the church was ruinous.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) 6 April 1989.
F A Greenhill 1958.
