Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Archaeology Notes

Event ID 770470

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/770470

NJ61SE 5.00 68472 12563

NJ61SE 5.01 NJ 68481 12571 Fraser Mausoleum

NJ61SE 5.02 NJ 6847 1255 St Machar's Church (Old Church of Cluny)

For adjacent and present Cluny Cemetery, see NJ61SE 28.

Grave Yard [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1973.

Apart from the Fraser Mausoleum (NJ61SE 5.01), the kirkyard is noteworthy for the following: Linton burial-enclosure: an elegant but simple monument (possibly by Archibald Simpson) in neo-Greek ashlar, monument to James Reid and his wife Marie Claudine Nardin, probably of 1897, an unusual terracotta work in early Italian Renaissance style, and four well-preserved mortsafes (in front of the Fraser mausoleum).

I Shepherd 1994.

Old Cluny Churchyard. Site of St Machar's church; the first kirk belonged to the cathedral of Aberdeen and is first mentioned in the taxation of 1225. About 1732 it was described as 'cross church' with two aisles; it was ruinous about 1789 and was demolished.

The old churchyard contains four mortsafes and a few old stones; unusual terracotta Early Italian renaissance monument to James Reid and his wife, c. 1897. It also contains the Fraser Mausoleum; neo-classical, circular ashlar granite with moulded base on a low square podium, architraved doorpiece with wrought-iron grille and a fine coat-of-arms over it; the dome has an oculus.

(GRC/AAS photography listed).

NMRS, MS/712/57.

Cluny burial-ground occupies a SSE-facing slope at the end of a ridge overlooking the boggy valley of the Ton Burn. The ground falls away on all sides except the N, and it is steepest on the S. Nothing can be seen of the medieval church, and the burial-ground is dominated by the tall, domed mausoleum of Eliza Fraser (dated 1808), which stands upon a terrace in the N half of the enclosure.

To the NW of this monument lies the burial-enclosure of the Frasers of Linton. This is of early 19th-century date, although the single stone it contains is dated 1996. To the SW of the mausoleum there is a platform measuring 6m from N to S by 4m transversely and 0.5m in height, upon which lie four mortsafes. These are of a uniform pattern, comprising a coffin-shaped granite slab, 2.15m in length by 0.74m in width and 0.15m in thickness, fastened to a wrought-iron, riveted cage, 0.28m in height.

The burial-ground contains numerous simple, round-headed, granite headstones, similar in form to those at Monymusk (NJ61NE 4) and Kemnay (NJ71NW 4). The earliest noted bear the dates 1800 and 1806.

It was not possible to examine any recumbent monuments due to a covering of snow on the date of visit.

Visited by RCAHMS (IF, AW), 20 November 1996.

People and Organisations

References