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Field Visit
Date June 1989
Event ID 1112475
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1112475
The old parish church of Kinfauns is a roofless ruin standing in its burial-ground. Rectangular on plan, it measures 21.6m from E to W by 7.9m transversely (over walls up to 1.2m thick) and preserves the remains of chamfered offsets at each gable. Although the building has been extensively altered since the Reformation, its fabric incorporates medieval work, and features include a semicircular-headed Easter Sepulchre, a round-headed N doorway and, in the middle of the S wall immediately above the present ground level, an ogival-headed recess. A medieval coped grave-cover, bearing a floriate-headed cross and shears, stands against the S wall of the church at the W end, a second is in re-use in the lintelled embrasure of the N doorway, and what may be a third has been cut to serve as a lintel of a square-headed window at the E end of the S wall. A burial-aisle bearing the date 1598 adjoins the church on the S. It is roofed, and appears to have been extensively repaired externally. Internally, it has a ribbed and groin-vaulted ceiling and cartouche panels on the E and W walls, one of which records that the aisle was built by John Charteris and Janet Chisholm.
On record as a chapel of the parish church of Scone in the 12th century, the church attained parochial status by 1419. It went out of use in 1868 when it was replaced by a new building (NO12SE 67.00) 30m to the WNW.
Visited by RCAHMS (PC/IMS) June 1989.
Statistical Account (OSA) 1791-9; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7; L Melville 1939; G Hay 1957; I B Cowan 1967; B Willsher 1987.
