Building record MAB8995 - ST NINIAN'S CHAPEL, CHAPELFORD

Graveyard, chapel and site of chapel of ease of pre Reformation date, dependent on Urquhart Priory.

Graveyard, chapel and site of chapel of ease of pre Reformation date, dependent on Urquhart Priory. At the time of the reformation the chapel shared the incumbent with the chapel at Bellie, but shortly after 1560 when the Chapel at Bellie was enlarged to a church this chapel at Chapelford went out of use and left to decay. The ruined chapel is known to have existed in 1602, and in 1687 it replaced or enlarged by the Roman Catholics, the chapel on the site opened in September 1688 was described as a large building, on the old foundations of Sr Ninian’s Chapel, and capable of containing 1000 people. It was 80 ft long and 19ft wide, with two side chapels making the form of a cross. It was in use for circa 40 years until 1728: when the Duke of Gordon died that year, the chapel saw its last use for the laying of his body in state. The chapel was subsequently desecrated by soldiers and abandoned, though the slates were re used to re-roof St Ninian's, Tynet in 1787. By 1870 there was no trace of the chapel building though the graveyard continued in use. A white marble Celtic cross commemorates Bishop Nicholson first Vicar Apostolic of Scotland who died in 1718 and 26 priests buried within the graveyard. In the extended southern part of the graveyard is a modern private chapel, the Dawson Mausoleum, designed by Reginal Fairley in 1939. It is octagonal in plan, constructed of rubble with tooled and polished ashlar dressings. It has small square headed lights with lattice pane glazing in each face, and a piended octagonal roof of graded Banffshire slate with a lead apex cross. Modern private chapel built in cemetery in 1955. The chapel is rectangular in plan and is incorporated in the east angle of the burial ground wall. It is harled with ashlar dressings, and a round headed entrance in centre west gable with double leaf plank doors. Crowstepped gables with cross finial at the west apex. Inserted above door in the south gable is a stone inscribed IHS with a Latin cross above the H and a date below letters of 1687. The graveyard is enclosed by rubble walls with entrance in the northeast angle flanked by square ashlar gatepiers with shallow pyramidal caps and linked by an ashlar overthrow with an apex cross and a pair of cast-iron gates. within the graveyard are four Commonwealth war graves, three from the First World War (two of these Canadian servicemen) and one from World War II. Monumental inscriptions within the churchyard were recorded by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group in 2009.

Period Notes
Stone dated 1687. Modern Chapel built in 1955; Dawson Mausoleum built in 1939. Designated 24/03/1988

MORAY BURIAL GROUND RESEARCH GROUP, 2003, NEWSLETTER, Issue 13 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5098.

MORAY BURIAL GROUND RESEARCH GROUP, 2010, MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS: ST NINIAN'S CHURCHYARD (CANDLEFORD) AND ST PETER'S CHURCH, BUCKIE, ST GREGORY'S, PRESHOME (Bibliographic reference). SAB7659.

Mar 14 2015 , AAS-GR-15-03-068 - 086, AAS-GR-15-03-068 - 086 (Ground Photograph). SAB35206.

Mar 14 2015 , AAS-GR-15-03-109 - 125, AAS-GR-15-03-109 - 125 (Ground Photograph). SAB35380.

SDD, n.d., BLDS OF ARCH & HIST INTEREST (Bibliographic reference). SAB1827.

Record last edited

Sep 5 2025 11:25AM