Building record MAB37650 - BIRSE CHURCH

Church, in use, built on or near the site of the medieval parish church which was mentioned in 1157, and dedicated to St Michael, and associated graveyard.

Church and its associated graveyard, still in use, built on or near the site of the Medieval parish church, which was mentioned in 1157 and dedicated to St. Michael. It was a prebendal church of the Chancellor of the Chapter of Aberdeen Cathedral. No remains of the earlier church survive.

A later church, built in 1765, was thatched in heather. When it was taken down in 1779, a 14-15th Century AD sculptured slab was discovered in the foundations. The decoration, partly incised and partly in relief, represents a sword and two small crosses, one inverted. It was built into the outside wall of the churchyard but is now built into the inside north wall of the church.

The present church was built in 1779 with alterations and repairs by Mackenzie and Mathews in 1854. The extension of the building to the east and complete internal remodelling of the church was undertaken by George Bennett Mitchell in 1937. The church is small and rectangular, and built in coursed granite blocks, with cherry cocking, and finely finished and tooled dressings. The roof is slated and has small metal ventilators. The principal west gable comprises the main entrance into the church. The central, rectangular doorway contains fairly recent replacement, double-leaf, timber doors. Above is a large round-arched window. All of the church's windows have small leaded panes of frosted glass. Flanking the doorway are small round-arch windows and in the gablehead is a small round louvred vent. Mounted on the apex of the gable is an elegant bellcote, with moulded uprights, ball pinnacles and a finial with a date stone bearing 1779: the bellcote was almost certainly from an earlier church and redated. There is also a metal weathervane. On the south wall is a World War I memorial, inscribed with the names of those from the parish who lost their lives (transcription in AAS Digital HER).

Internally, the church originally had a U-plan gallery with a pulpit on the long wall, but is now a broad plan with a rear gallery. Memorial stones are set in the south wall, with fine stained glass to the east. The two-chambered graveyard is enclosed by rubble-built walls with rubble coping, and square-plan, tooled, granite gatepiers with pyramidal caps to the south and southeast of the graveyard with ironwork gates. A small iron gate leads to the manse (MAB37679). The graveyard contains some 18th and 19th Century gravestones, and two Commonwealth war graves: Private Charles Harper, Royal Army Medical Corps and Private James Samson, Gordon Highlanders.

Alterations and repairs were undertaken on the present building on 26 July 1854, with further alterations between 1927-1929, and between 1930-1932. The chancel was added and the interior of the church was redesigned in 1937. The church contents were recorded by Scotland's Churches Trust volunteers in April 2025. This included memorials, commemorative plaques, stained glass, wooden furnishings, and textiles.

ORDNANCE SURVEY, 1871, Ordnance Name Book, BIRSE 1 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1360.

JERVISE, A, 1879, EPITAPHS & INSCRIPTIONS,VOL 2, 47 (Bibliographic reference). SAB889.

EEELES, FC, 1912, PSAS 46(1911-12) 365-7, 365-7 (Bibliographic reference). SAB463.

HAY, G., 1957, THE ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTTISH POST-REF CHURCHES, 242 (Bibliographic reference). SAB720.

EELES, FC, 1957, THE CHURCH AND OTHER BELLS OF ABERDEENSHIRE PSAS 90 (1956-7) 130-60, pp. 137-8 (Bibliographic reference). SAB490.

GRAHAM, C, 2014, STALWART FOLK OF BIRSE. IN PRESS AND JOURNAL YL 19/07/14 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2647.

SCOTLAND'S CHURCHES TRUST, 2025, BIRSE CHURCH: CHURCH RECORDING (Bibliographic reference). SAB4888.

Feb 10 2011 , AAS/2011/1/DG3006, AAS/2011/1/DG3006 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB13186.

Jul 14 2008 , AAS/08/2/DG9467, AAS/08/2/DG9467 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB19559.

Record last edited

Jul 23 2026 12:44PM