Archaeology Notes

Event ID 666566

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/666566

NJ25NW 1.00 20654 58718

NJ25NW 1.01 20634 58737 Pictish symbol stone

NJ25NW 1.02 20637 58769 Gatepiers

NJ25NW 1.03 20647 58711 Burial Ground

NJ25NW 1.04 20652 58753 Burial Ground Extension

NJ25NW 1.05 20654 58718 Cross slab

See also NJ25NW 17.

See also NJ25NW 47 - Birnie New Cemetery

(NJ 2064 5871) Church (NAT)

(NJ 2063 5872) Sculptured Stone (NR)

OS 6" map, 1959.

Birnie parish church, consisting of a plain Norman nave chancel, of square, dressed, freestone ashlar. The architecture suggests a date late in the 12th century, but within the church is a probably earlier Norman font. The nave was shortened by a few feet when the west wall was rebuilt in 1734, the date on the belfry.

Birnie is said to have been the original seat of the Bishops of Moray (see also NJ25NW 4) and Simeon, the fourth bishop was buried here in 1184.

The church is said to have been dedicated to St Brendan, but MacDonald and Laing doubt this, although a Class I symbol stone was recovered/from the churchyard wall and a Celtic bell is preserved in the church. There are no remains of earlier structures but the oval churchyard probably preserves the outline of an early christian enclosure.

The symbol stone of granite 3 1/2' high by 2' by 2' bears the eagle and z-rod as well as a rectangular device and stands against the outside of the entrance to the churchyard. Four Class III fragments, two of them probably from the same upright cross-slab, are preserved within the church.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; A D S MacDonald and L R Laing 1973

(Presbytery of Elgin). Birnie was a commune kirk of the Cathedral of Elgin. It was dedicated to St Breandan. The 12th century Norman parish church remains still in use. It has an ancient square bell, and a Norman font of a very early type which may not unlikely have belonged to an earlier church building. In 1184, Simon, fourth Bishop of Moray, was buried in this church.

H Scott 1915-61.