Archaeology Notes

Event ID 682256

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/682256

NO11NW 16 11344 18986

For predecessor church at NO 1124 1878, see NO11NW 13. For successor church at NO 1299 1846, see NO11NW 18. For bell-cote (presumably from this church) at Belfry Cottage (NO 1111 1881) within Dunbarney House policies, see NO11NW 97.08.

(NO 1133 1898) Grave Yard (NAT)

OS 6" map, Perthshire, 1st ed., (1860)

'.... Previous to 1684, the parish church stood a mile west from the Bridge of Earn, in the burying ground near the mansion of Dunbarney.... The old burying ground is still used as a cemetery. It is defended by a substantial stone wall of 10 feet high. It is situated on an elevated spot about one third of a mile from the Earn, and in it stood the ancient kirk of Dunbarney'.

NSA 1845

There is no trace of the former Parish Church, nor recollection of its ruins in local memory, within the Grave Yard which is still in use.

Name Book 1860.

No trace of a church can be seen in the overgrown but still used graveyard, nor does an estate map show anything there (Information from Estate plan of 1793). It is believed that the church is not shown on other estate plans (Information from Lady Gomme Duncan, Dunbarnie House, Perth)

Visited by OS (R D L) 11 June 1964.

The burial-ground of the former parish of Dunbarney stands at the edge of a river terrace, looking out northwards over the floodplain of the River Earn. Rectangular in plan, and defined by a dyke of mortared rubble, the interior lies up to 1.5m above the level of the surrounding ground. Nothing is visible of the church, although its site may be indicated by a low swelling in the middle of the burial-ground; the east end of this swelling is partly occupied by the Dunbarney family burial-enclosure. A second burial-enclosure stands in the SE corner of the burial-ground. The visible stone monuments are predominantly head- and ledger-stones of the 18th- and 19th-centuries, the oldest decipherable date being 1719.

The church was demolished in 1684 to provide materials for the erection of a new church in Bridge of Earn (NO11NW 18), the latter was subsequently demolished in 1787 to make for the present church. A birdcage-type belfry from the old church, probably dating from the 17th century, has been set on the S gable of the potting-shed which adjoins the S end of Belfry Cottage (NO11NW 97); the bell is missing, but the bell-housing and the pivot remain.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, IF), 27 November 1996.

J W Seath and R E Seath 1991.