Dallas Parish Church
Church (18th Century), Spring (Period Unknown)
Site Name Dallas Parish Church
Classification Church (18th Century), Spring (Period Unknown)
Alternative Name(s) St Michael's Church, Well
Canmore ID 16106
Site Number NJ15SW 4
NGR NJ 12184 51859
NGR Description NJ 12184 51859 and NJ 12277 51791
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/16106
- Council Moray
- Parish Dallas
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Moray
- Former County Morayshire
NJ15SW 4.00 12184 51859 and 12277 51591.
NJ15SW 4.01 Burial Ground
NJ15SW 4.02 Watch House
(NJ 1217 5186) Church (NAT)
(NJ 1227 5179) St Michael's Well (NR)
OS 6" map, Morayshire, 2nd ed., (1906)
Dallas Parish Church, built in 1793, stands on the site of St Michael's Church, mentioned in 1226.
The older parish church was repaired in 1580, but fell into ruin about 1627, when a new church was built.
The foundations of an old church have been noted in the churchyard, some yards to the east, nearer the Lossie, of the present church.
St Michael's Well, a natural spring, lies on the opposite side of the burn.
Name Book 1871; H B Mackintosh 1924; R Douglas 1928.
No trace of church foundations could be found: No trace of St Michael's Well exists at NJ 1227 5179, although there is a natural spring at NJ 1227 5159, about 20.0m S of this spot.
Revised at 1/2500. (St Michael's Well).
Visited by OS (R D) 26 August 1965.
Michael's Well is close beside the church and a stone effigy of the saint, at one time in a niche in the wall of the old church, lies beside the cross, where Michael's Fair was held.
A Jervise 1875-9.
No trace and no local knowledge of the stone effigy, the old church, or St Michael's Well.
The spring described by Dickson is a boggy area at the foot of outcrop rock, a good place for a well.
Visited by OS (A A) 5 May 1971.
NJ 121 518 The laying of a water main along the road verge adjoining the front (southern) edge of the graveyard was monitored. St Michael's Church dates to 1793, but stands on a medieval site and the churchyard contains a Scheduled market cross, claimed by some to be one of the oldest in Scotland (NJ15SW 2).
The trench revealed clean and undisturbed sandy silts, apart from one location opposite the entrance to the side access to the church, where there was a man-hole and associated drains, and indications of a wide, almost certainly natural depression, containing a fill of rounded cobbles below layered silts. This was interpreted as a former pond or similar.
Sponsor: Halcrow plc.
J Wood 2004
