Building record MAB13346 - ST MARNOCH'S CHURCH, MARNOCH

Graveyard, watch house and site of a church dedicated to St Marnoch, who according to traditional belief was buried here in the mid-7th century.

Graveyard, watch house and site of a church dedicated to St Marnoch, who according to traditional belief was buried here in the mid-7th century. The Ordnance Survey Name Book refers to remains in the old churchyard. OS noted in 1964 that no trace of any foundations could be found and that the remains seen in the old churchyard appeared to be part of a burial enclosure, although the Listed Building description records the remains of the east gable end of the church. The graveyard dates from the 17th century and is enclosed by ashlar coped rubble walls with ashlar gatepiers, with iron gates to north and east. There is former a watch house in the north east corner, built in 1831. The watch house is L-plan, gabled and harled with ashlar margins, grey slate roof and ashlar coped skews with some urn finials. It has a door to the east and irregular windows and ground floor level. It has vaulted cellar area, accessed via a flight of ten steps leading down. Above the entrance is a dated stone. The front wall is 1.44 m thick. The interior is now used as a store room for tools. The upper chamber, added in 1877, was formerly used as a schoolroom. In the graveyard, several notable burial enclosures can be found. The Meldrum burial aisle is dated 1699, built of Moray sandstone, possibly by John Faid. It is a freestanding ornate Baroque monument in a coped ashlar enclosure with balustrade. A portrait bust of George Meldrum stands in a scrolled niche with an angel in the soffit and marble inscribed plaque below, flanking Corinthian columns, entablature with strapwork frieze and a broken pediment with heraldic device surmounted by an urn and flanked by angels with trumpets. A condition survey in 2017 noted the that the Meldrum burial aisle was in unstable condition and in need of urgent repair. A programme of repair and stabilisation works was undertaken by Aberdeenshire Council in 2018. The Chalmers Memorial, 1707, is to Hugo Chalmers, Minister of Marnoch. The Innes of Murrayford enclosure, dated 1780, is a neo-classical, free-standing, ashlar pedimented memorial with coped ashlar enclosing walls and gatepiers. The Grant enclosure is a freestanding memorial within a granite ashlar coped enclosure with ashlar gatepiers and wrought iron gates.

Period Notes
St Marnoch supposedly buried here mid 7th Century; present church built 1840; alterations and additions circa 1884. Listed 22/02/1972.

Author unknown, 1799, OLD STATISTICAL ACCOUNT, (1792) 95 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1845.

STUART, J, 1857, NOTICE OF THE EARLY ECCLESIASTICAL SETTLEMENT.....AND OF RECENT EXCAVATION AT THE HA' HILLOCK. PSAS 2(1854-6) 368-72, 369-70 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1801.

ORDNANCE SURVEY, 1871, Ordnance Name Book, No23(1867) 44 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1360.

JERVISE, A, 1879, EPITAPHS & INSCRIPTIONS,VOL 2, 231-5 (Bibliographic reference). SAB889.

RITCHIE, J., 1921, RELICS OF THE BODY-SNATCHERS: SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON MORTSAFE TACKLE, MORTSAFES, WATCH-HOUSES, AND PUBLIC VAULTS. PSAS 55, 221-9, 228-9 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1541.

Jul 7 2006 , DP 019412-14, DP 019412-14 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB12934.

Jul 24 1985 , EX 7-16, EX 7-16 (Ground Photograph). SAB13687.

Record last edited

Jan 3 2025 4:58PM