Humbie Parish Church

A church stood on this site prior to the Scottish Reformation. The pre-Reformation parishes of Keith Symons and Keith Hundeby were combined in 1618 to form the combined parishes of Keith and Humbie. At the time of the Scottish Disruption in 1843, the minister led the congregation out of the church to worship in the open, rather than accept the principle of Patronage (whereby a congregation could not choose its own minister, but was forced to accept the patronage of the local Laird). The church went through successive church unions to belong in turn to the Free Church of Scotland, United Free Church before coming back into the Church of Scotland in 1929.

The present building dates to 1800. The original church was typically T-shaped, and south-facing. Alterations were made in 1866 by David Bryce, and in 1932 a chancel was added. At this time the church interior was re-orientated to match liturgical east with geographical east. In 1950 the original plain-glass east window was replaced with a design by Douglas Strachan, illustrating scenes from the life of King David. Strachan is notable for designing the glass for the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle. The church is surrounded by an ancient graveyard, still in use today, and described as resassuring a place to be buried as you could wish for...deep in the woods with the burn…