Hatton Of Fintray, Manse Lane, Old Parish Church
Church (18th Century) - (19th Century) (1703)-(1821)
Site Name Hatton Of Fintray, Manse Lane, Old Parish Church
Classification Church (18th Century) - (19th Century) (1703)-(1821)
Canmore ID 19487
Site Number NJ81NW 26
NGR NJ 84069 16521
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/19487
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Fintray
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Gable of old kirk, 1703, abandoned 1821, with bellcote stands in old burial ground.
Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NJ81NW 26.00 84069 16521
NJ81NW 26.01 84071 16531 Burial Ground and Morthouse
For predecessor church see NJ81NE 11 8718 1557 St Meddan's Church and Burial Ground
For present church see NJ81NW 58.00 84045 16642 Fintray Parish Church
(NJ 8406 1652) Church (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map (1928)
The parish church was built at Hatton of Fintray in 1703.
J Ritchie 1911
All that remains of the 1703 Church are the west gable end and the NW corner (Minister of Fintray parish church). The west gable, with belfry, is 8.0m long, 0.9m thick and is constructed of mortared rubble masonry; it is ivy covered. On the prolongation of this wall is the 0.1m high footing of another wall; it is 2.0m in length but its thickness cannot be determined.
Visited by OS (EGC) 23 October 1961.
Only the W gable and NW corner remain of the church; the W gable (with the belfry) is constructed of mortared rubble masonry and now covered with ivy.
There is a vault for the storage of bodies in the churchyard. This is an underground stone arched chamber, covered with turf and entered by a descending flight of stairs. Internally, there are shelves upon which coffins were placed, and the door was of iron.
[GRC/AAS photography cited].
NMRS, MS/712/77.
Field Visit (22 November 2001)
The remains of the former parish church of Fintray stand in its burial-ground in the village of Hatton of Fintray. The parish church was built in 1703 by Sir William Forbes of Craigievar to replace the earlier church at Cothall (NJ81NE 11) some 3.2km to the ESE. The building is now reduced to its W gable and stumps of the N and S walls, shrouded in a mass of ivy which renders the upper portion of the structure invisible. The gable indicates a building aligned E and W, measuring 7.7 overall in breadth. The N wall, 0.75m in thickness, survives for only 1.58m in length. The gable is penetrated by a central doorway. The jambs, of granite and sandstone, bear a narrow chamfer, and may be in re-use. Above the door is a blocked rectangular window.
Immediately to the NE of the gable is a semi-subterranean, vaulted morthouse, covered in a mound of earth measuring 7.25m from E to W by 6.5m transversely and 1.35m high. A flight of stone steps on its W side leads down to a doorway spanned by a lintel that bears the incised date 1830. The outer door is missing, but the inner, of iron, survives.
Keith’s ‘View of the Diocese’ (1732) states that the church had an aisle for the Forbes family ‘wherein there is also a room for their use; and again, within it, a hearth and cupboard, etc.; so that people may eat and drink, and even smoak in it, if they will: a profaneness unheard of ….’ (Collections, 245). Between 1818 and 1820 James Logan described the church as ‘large and furnished with commodious galleries, but [it] contains nothing remarkable’. A photograph of the ruin prior to its envelopment by the ivy shows it to be surmounted by a simple bird-cage bellcote of eighteenth century pattern, topped by a ball finial (Cruickshank 1941, 5-6, fig.5).
The church stands towards the NNW end of a rectangular burial-ground, which lies in the base of the shallow valley occupied by the village of Hatton. The surface of the kirkyard is flush with the top of the enclosing rubble and mortar boundary wall. To the E is a damp meadow and to the W is a stream that has been culverted under the adjoining track. According to Logan the burial ground was ‘large, and is surrounded by a wall and ditch: both it is said, formerly of considerable heighth [sic] & depth’ (Cruickshank 1941, 5). It contains many headstones, mostly of the nineteenth century, but also a number of eighteenth century date. On the day of visit a covering of snow prevented any examination of the numerous recumbent stones.
In 1821 the church was succeeded by a new church, built 100m to the N (NJ81NW 58). The bell, cast in 1751 by John Mowat of Old Aberdeen for the church of Fintray, was removed to this successor building.
Visited by RCAHMS (IF, AW), 22 November 2001.
