Archaeology Notes

Event ID 678768

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/678768

NN84NW 6 84296 49797.

(NN 8429 4979) Church (NR)

OS 6" map, Perthshire, 2nd ed., (1901)

The old parish church of Weem dedicated to St Cuthbert (Fitties 1879) is an oblong building, measuring internally 62' E-W x c. 19', with a N transept, 21' x 17'.

This building is supposed to have been built by Sir Robert Menzies c. 1488. After 1820, it was abandoned for the more modern building a few hundred yards E. The old church has since been used as a mausoleum of the Menzies family.

Two old stone crosses within the church were originally at, or near, the village of Dull, and served as door or gateposts at the entrance of a sanctuary, from where they were removed c. 1850.

R S Fittes 1879; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92; M Ferguson 1891.

Now generally known as the 'Old Kirk of Weem' (information from notice board) or occasionally 'Weem Old Church'. It is in good repair and is still in use as the Menzies' mausoleum. According to notes in the church, a church at Weem was founded by St Cuthbert who conducted a mission in the area c. 651-61 and constructed an oratory and cistern at 'Chapel Rock', said to be the existing St David's Well (see NN84NW 9), also erecting a stone cross. A church at Weem is mentioned in charters of 1235, and Weem is described as a parish. The date of the present building is uncertain; it is pre-Reformation and probably built to replace an earlier structure at the same time as the Place of Weem (NN84NW 8) by Sir Robert Menzies in 1488. It was altered in 1609 and in the 18th century. It has been known both as 'St Cuthbert's Church' and 'St David's Church', the latter presumably from Sir David Menzies who became a Cistercian monk and was rector of the parish from 1440, but neither dedication is generally applied today.

The two Dull crosses are still preserved in the Kirk, and also two weathered fragments of a cross shaft from St David's Well (see NN84NW 9).

Visited by OS (J M) 12 November 1974.

No change to previous field report.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (J R L) 1 December 1978.