Pre Reformation-Parish Church, Kincardine, Strathspey

The church stands within a burial ground managed by the Highland Council and accessed by a gated track off the B970. The site is attested by Pont’s mapping ca. 1583-96 as that of the church of the parish of Kincardine (within the deanery of Strathspey, the diocese of Moray in the medieval period). The ‘Listed Building’ description (category C) includes the suggestion that the church is ‘said to have been established on present site by missionaries from Iona’ but any specific association with Iona appears to be repetition of unverified 19^th century aspirational speculation. A former minister, Gaelic-speaking Rev. Dr William Forsyth (Abernethy & Kincardine, 1863-1907) reported both that an old name for the church was Eaglais Thomhaldaich and that the patron saint had been St Katherine. The site and its building were in use for regular worship as one of two parochial churches after the parishes of Abernethy and Kincardine were united as one charge around 1600. It remained within the Church of Scotland, though in differing connections, into the 21^st century. References to the early building are anecdotal but include renovation in 1625 and in the 1780s. Forsyth’s attention secured the support of missionary ministers or students from 1875 and the church enjoyed quasi-independence in the second half of the 19^th century, especially after the building of a missionary’s manse in 1888.  A major restoration (undertaken by Alexander Mackenzie, ‘C.E. & Architect, County Buildings, Kingussie’) was funded by the heritors and other donors in 1897. Kincardine was separated from Abernethy and erected as a Church Extension Charge in 1932 in union with Duthil parish’s mission at Boat of Garten – whose church became the main place of worship. A further reorganization of the interior of the Kincardine building took place in 1957. 

A simple, narrow rectangle, of solid stone construction. Plans for the 1897 renovation show a vestigial ‘lepers’ squint’ on the south wall, and this together with protruding rough stones on the east and north walls suggests that the current building is based on and occupies the footprint of an earlier pre-Reformation predecessor that a local story describes as thatched. The large recessed commemorative stained-glass round window in the east gable was added in 1900 and the white-painted external rendering thereafter.  The roof is pitched, clad in slates, and features on the west gable a belfry of ‘bird-cage’ design with a ball finial surmounting a pyramid. The belfry’s style could fit with a renovation c.1780. A bell and external rope are extant. Entry is by a double door, with a window above, at the west end of the south wall. The south wall also features three rectangular windows: that at the west end contains commemorative stained-glass donated in 1911, the work of Ballentine & Son, Edinburgh. The remaining two windows of the south wall, the single, central window of the north wall, and a single, high, central window in the east gable have plain diamond lattice coloured glass framed in red and white. The south wall has a (redundant) flue extension for a stove, and the ‘leper’s squint’ window, restored in 1897 and now clear glassed. The window at the east end of the south wall replaced an earlier door at that location as part of the 1897 works. Outside the current door are secured two cages / mortsafes designed to thwart grave-robbers, and a large, roughly carved stone font which may have survived from the first millennium – others like it can be found near the doors of other ancient parish churches in Strathspey and Badenoch.

The double door in the south wall accesses a small vestibule and then a lobby with a locked cloak / storage room off.  This lobby has its own ceiling located well below the full height of the walls.  From inside, the effect (though no access is available) is of an end gallery whose edge is lined with decorative cast-iron. The main sanctuary has a carpeted central aisle with numbered pews to both sides leading to a raised east end containing the pulpit, a central and free-standing communion table, and a fixed screen to position the organ. The floor, ceiling, and the pine woodwork throughout including the pews all date from 1897. The ranks of pews are broken by: a) a cast-iron solid-fuel stove (by Smith & Wellstood, Bonnybridge, now redundant); b) pew 16, at the back on the left, is a double space with its own door, table and a brass plaque marked ‘Dunbar’ – the Dunbars being tenants of the main farm of Pityoulish in 1897; c) another double space, towards the front right contains what may have been the previous communion table. Beside the pulpit, a 1914-18 War Memorial is fixed to the north wall. The current (2023) electric organ was transferred to Kincardine from Boat of Garten Church of Scotland in 2022, replacing a former instrument; a harmonium formerly in use was also removed. The raised east end, with the pulpit, communion table and space for an organ, all date from an improvement scheme of 1957. The recessed round window in the east gable, featuring an angel bearing the legend: ‘God is Love’, is of a size to focus attention. The widow is dedicated ‘In Loving Memory of James MacDonald Dunbar died March 10^th, 1898’. No designer’s name is recorded. The memorial window in the south wall features, central, the graces Charity, Faith and Hope, together with surrounding angels displaying the fruits of the Spirit: Joy, Love, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance. The dedication is ‘In Loving Memory of Charlotte Jane Dunbar died Aug. 9^th, 1909, and also of Frank Hamish Dunbar died July 17^th 1904.’

Surveyed by     Frank D. Bardgett   date 14 January 2023