Convinth, Old Parish Church

NH53NW 2.00 5120 3746

(NH 5120 3746) Chapel [NR] (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906).

NH53NW 2.01 Centred NH 51205 37440 Cemetery; Sculptured stones; Cup-markings

See also NH53NW 6.

This was once the parish church of Convinth (W Jolly 1882) 2), and was dedicated to St. Lawrence. Convinth was a parish in 1221. The churchyard contains some early stones, including one bearing a horse and rider, suggestive of the Celtic period. There are also two cup-marked stones, one with two cups, the other with four.

Glen-convinth church is traditionally said to have been founded by a companion of St Erchard.(W MacKay 1893)

(St. Erchard was a disciple of St. Ternan. St. Ternan lived in the 5th century). (W D Simpson 1935)

T Wallace 1911

St Lawrence's Church - possibly of 16/17th century date, with no trace of earlier structure - is built of random masonry, roughly coursed with rubble infilling and measures approx 22.0m by 6.8m within a wall 1.0m thick. The SW gable and the NW wall stand to a maximum height of c.2.5 m, and part of the SE wall survives as a foundation, but the NE gable is destroyed. Graves occupy the interior. The burial ground is still in use.

The stone bearing the horse and rider, and the two cup-marked stones, could not be located and there is no local knowledge of them.

Visited by OS (R D) 9 Feburary 1970.