Insch, High Street, St Drostan's Parish Church

Heritage listing

Date Added 27/11/1970 Last Date Amended 27/11/1970 Type Crosses and carved stones: tombstone, Ecclesiastical: church Local Authority Aberdeenshire Parish Insch NGR NJ 63344 28146 Coordinates 363344, 828146 — The monument consists of the W gable of the parish church of Insch and the site of the demolished parts of the church, together with two medieval memorials. The monument was scheduled in 1970 but an inadequate area was included; this re-scheduling corrects this. The church's presumed dedication to St Drostan may indicate that the site had been associated with Christian worship from an early period, but it is likely that the basis for the later parish church was established during the early stages of the 12th/13th-century creation of the Scottish parochial network. The church was clearly in existence by the time that it was granted to Lindores Abbey in 1191x5 by the founder of that abbey, David earl of Huntingdon, and the provision for a vicar was confirmed in 1257. In its final form, the medieval church was of rectangular plan, while an offshoot off the northern side of the chancel area shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey may have been a sacristy (although an offshoot in that position could also have been a chantry, laird's aisle or a burial enclosure). It remained in use through the Reformation period, albeit presumably with major liturgical re-ordering taking place at that time. A bellcote, dated 1613 (and with the initials MIL for a member of the Leslie family), was added at the apex of the W gable; its piers are decorated with enriched balusters, and it is capped with gablets embellished with pinnacles, volutes and finials. (The bell which used to hang here was dated 1706.) The inscription A[nno] R[edemptionis] 162- on the S skewput of the W gable suggests

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.