Ardchattan, Old Parish Church
Church (18th Century) (1731)-(1732)
Site Name Ardchattan, Old Parish Church
Classification Church (18th Century) (1731)-(1732)
Canmore ID 88192
Site Number NM93SE 23
NGR NM 9763 3474
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/88192
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Ardchattan And Muckairn (Argyll And Bute)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NM93SE 23 9763 3474
For Old Kirk (St Baodan's Church, at NM 97102 35342), see NM93NE 1.
For (successor and present) Ardchattan Parish Church (NM 94491 35955 ), see NM93NW 47.
At NM 9763 3474, there are fragmentary remains of the Old Parish Church of Ardchattan, erected in 1731-2.
RCAHMS 1975, visited 1969.
See also:
NM93NW 47 Archattan Parish Church
NM93NE 1 Ardchattan, Old Kirk
REFERENCE:
SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE
Building of Ardchattan Church.
Sums received from the heritors to pay for the work.
Account and receipts.
1738 GD 170/249
[Cross ref. GD 170/2314/26/1 and 2]
For references to the repair of this church and the building of a new church, see Architecture Notes of Ardchattan Parish Church (NM93NW 47).
Field Visit (May 1969)
NM 976 347. About 45 m to the E of Ardchattan Manse there stand the fragmentary remains of a rectangular building measuring about 18·4 m from E to W by 7·5 m transversely over all.The N and E walls have been almost entirely destroyed, but the S wall, which survives to a maximum height of about 1·5 m, appears to have incorporated a number of doorway- and window-openings.
This is evidently the church that was erected to serve the parishioners of Ardchattan in 1731-2. Prior to this date parish services were held in Ardchattan Priory (RCAHMS 1975 No. 217), which itself appears to have superseded the medieval church of Baile Mhaodain (No. 220) as the principal place of parish worship sometime during the 17th century (Origines Parochiales, ii, part i, 148; 'Memoriall & Queries for the heritors of the paroch of Ardchattan' (c. 1730) in Campbell of Ardchattan Papers, Ardchattan Priory, Top Drawer.) A building-contract and other documents preserved in the Ardchattan Papers show that the church was built by James Duff, mason in Dunblane, and that work had been completed by November 1732; some of the stone used in the construction was evidently quarried from Ardchattan Priory (Campbell of Ardchattan Papers, loc. cit.). A seating-plan of the church, preserved in the Scottish Record Office (RHP12329), indicates that the communion table was centrally placed on the long axis of the church and that the pulpit stood against the centre of the S wall. The church is indicated on Roy's Map of about 1750 (cf. also No. 216).
RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1969.
