Marykirk, Aberluthnott Parish Church, Churchyard, Thornton Aisle

Heritage listing

Date Added 03/03/1994 Supplementary Information Updated 27/06/2018 Type Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard; church Local Authority Aberdeenshire Parish Marykirk NGR NO 68652 65549 Coordinates 368652, 765549 — The monument consists of the remains of the old parish church of Marykirk, formerly Abirlothenot, contained within an oval cemetery surrounded by a wall. The nave of the church, first recorded in 1242, has been almost completely destroyed above ground level, but is recorded (in 1875) as having measured 29.3m by 5.2m. At the S side of it stands a transeptual chapel, 6.7m N-S by 5.6m E-W, now known as the "Thornton Aisle", which opened from the nave through a broad semi-circular arch with a heavy quirked roll-moulding on both arrisses. A large rectangular window (now blocked) in the S gable and an ogee-headed credence niche in the E wall are evidently pre-Reformation features. Subsequently a door, bearing on its lintel the date 1615 between the initials AS, was inserted in the W wall. At a still later date, probably after the nave had gone out of use, this door and the N window were blocked; the sole means of entry was now by a door in the blocking of the arch on the N. At the same time small rectangular windows were inserted high up in the E and S walls. These works were evidently associated with the conversion of the chapel into a burial Aisle for the Strachans of Thornton. The centrepiece of the internal arrangement of the aisle was provided by the magnificently elaborate classical memorial to Dame Elizabeth Forbes, Lady of Thornton, erected against the W wall by her husband, Sir James Strachan of Thornton after her death in childbirth at the age of 24 in 1661. On the N side of the former nave, and further E, the Barclay Aisle is an ivy-covered bar

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.