Archaeology Notes

Event ID 704589

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/704589

NS79NE 15 7787 9811 to 7792 9811.

The first church at Lecropt was known as St Moroc's after the Celtic missionary Moroc who ministered there about 800 AD and was buried there (Martyrology of Aberdeen). No definite date of construction is known but there was a church at Lecropt prior to 1260, while tradition dates it to 1296, however, an inscription on a column dates it to 1400 (E MacLean 1963).

The church stood in the old churchyard (NS 7787 9811) at which there was a square of buildings, consisting of school, manse and cottages, forming Lecropt Village. There, together with the church, were demolished in 1826 and the ground which they had occupied was enclosed within the policies of Keir (R T Young 1933).

Nothing now remains but the old churchyard - the site of the altar being marked by a stone pedestal surmounted by an inscribed wooden cross (NS 7786 9812) (OS 6" map, 1861-2).

On the opposite side of the Lecropt Burn is a holy well traditionally said to have been blessed by St Bryde.

W J Watson 1926

There are no remains of church or village but the sites of both are well known locally. The wooden cross has been replaced by a stone one, the latter standing at NS 7787 9811 in the old churchyard (now disused).

The inscription on the pedestal base reads: 'Here stood the High Altar of the old Church of Lecropt',. No information could be found about the column inscribed with a date.

The well is at NS 7792 9813. It has a wooden sill and lies beneath a projecting rock; although filled with water it is no longer in use.

Visited by OS (EGC) 13 November 1968

Well destroyed by new motorway in August 1972.

Visited by OS Reviser (H Dudgeon) September 1972