Archaeology Notes

Event ID 689816

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/689816

NO44NE 10 46536 46241.

(NO 4654 4624) Meathie Church (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1973)

The site of the church of the former parish of Meathie-Lour which was suppressed in 1667, whereupon the church, dedicated in 1243, was allowed to fall into ruin.

A J Warden 1880-5.

The now overgrown foundations of this church reveal a rectangular structure measuring 21.0m x 7.0m externally, the walls of which are 1.0m thick and 0.3m - 0.5m high, except for a fragment of the N wall at the E end which has been rebuilt to a height of 2.0m and on which is an inscription which states that this was the burial place of the Bowers of Kingoldrum in the 18th century, and that the foundations of the church were exposed by excavation in 1926. An ornamental sacrament house, discovered in 1926, has been built into this modern wall.

There is a doorway in the N wall, 5.0m from the W wall; it is 1.0m wide and shows the bases of finely moulded jambs. Immediately opposite this, in the S wall, is another doorway; and a further break of 1.0m in the S wall, 6.0m from the E end may represent yet another doorway. Fragments of carved stones and old grave-slabs lie amid the thick undergrowth which covers the site. A low dry-stone wall still surrounds the graveyard but no erect slabs exist within it.

Visited by OS (J L D) 12 August 1958.

Scheduled as Meathie, church and graveyard.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 29 October 2003.