Archaeology Notes

Event ID 679156

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679156

NN81NE 3.00 86787 17072

NN81NE 3.01 NN 8679 1704 archway

NN81NE 3.02 NN 86799 17058 Burial-ground

NN 8679 1706 Church (NR).

OS 6" map, (1958)

An important medieval parish church now in ruins. At its west end, embedded in the nave, is a tall Norman tower once free-standing, which partakes somewhat of a Celtic character. The nave and chancel belong mostly to the early 15th century. In the care of the MoW. There was a Culdee settlement here. (But see NN81NE4).

V G Childe and W D Simpson 1961.

'Muthill Old Church' (Information from MoW plaque). The church, abandoned in 1818, has an aisled nave and chancel with an earlier tower embedded in the west end of the nave. The nave and chancel were built in the earlier 15th century, possibly by Michael Ochiltree, Dean of Dunblane (some fragments may be earlier). The tower is the most important feature of the monument; it dates from the 12th century and is one of a small related group in Central Scotland. The others are preserved at Dunning, Dunblane, Markinch and St Andrews.

Visited by OS (R D) 19 May 1967.

Muthill (Dunblane) was granted to Lindores by Malise, son of Earl Ferteth of Strathearn (1195x99); the church was confirmed to the abbey by Pope Innocent III in 1199. Litigation broke out almost immediately between the bishop of Dunblane and the abbey, the former claiming the church as pertaining to his mense and the ensuing composition made by William, bishop of St Andrews (1211 x 14) was mainly in favour of the bishop, whose successors retained the parsonage, with one quarter of the vicarage, which may have been acquired as a result of a Papal bull of 1237. The residual fruits of the vicarage had been annexed as a prebend to the sub-chantership of Dunblane by the mid-fifteenth century.

I B Cowan 1967