Chapeltown, Roman Catholic Church Of Our Lady Of Perpetual Succour, Chapel House And Burial Ground
Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Church (Period Unassigned), House (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Chapeltown, Roman Catholic Church Of Our Lady Of Perpetual Succour, Chapel House And Burial Ground
Classification Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Church (Period Unassigned), House (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Abbe Paul Macpherson's Church; St Mary's Chapel
Canmore ID 170718
Site Number NJ22SW 44.01
NGR NJ 24170 20992
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/170718
- Council Moray
- Parish Inveravon
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Moray
- Former County Banffshire
Chapeltown has had a long association with the Roman Catholic faith. The church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour was built in 1897 on the site of a church built in the 1840s.
It was designed in a relatively simple Scottish Romanesque style by the architect John Kinross and its building was financed by the Marquess of Bute. The most striking external feature of the chapel is a tall crowstepped entrance tower.
The simplicity of the grey harled exterior with prink granite dressings contrasts sharply with the richly decorated interior with the ceiling and mural stencilling in colours of gold, scarlet and green. The wood panelled altar is decorated with angels playing musical instruments, while the oak reredos, the screen behind the altar, has paintings of Our Lady flanked by Saints Alphonsus and Bernard. Within the entrance porch marble plaques commemorate the work of Abbe Paul MacPherson and his death in Rome in 1846 at the age of 91.
The Chapel House is linked to the western end of the chapel and probably dates from about 1840. It was originally a single-storeyed building, with an upper floor added in the late nineteenth century.
As at Buiternach, many of the nineteenth and twentieth century headstones in the walled burial-ground are cut from local Tomintoul slate.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
NJ22SW 44 24170 20992
The present R.C. Church is built on the site of a previous Chapel dedicated to Abbe Paul MacPherson. This Chapel is depicted on the OS 1st Edition 6" Map (Banffshire, sheet XLI, 1872).
Information from RCAHMS (HMLB), August 2001.
Photographic Survey (13 June 2013)
Photographed on behalf of the Buildings of Scotland publications 2013-14.
