Meathie, Church And Burial-ground

Heritage listing

Date Added 29/10/2003 Type Ecclesiastical: church Local Authority Angus Parish Inverarity NGR NO 46534 46239 Coordinates 346534, 746239 — The monument comprises the remains of the church and graveyard which served the medieval parish of Meathie-Lour. It is situated on the edge of natural woodland to the north of Fothringham Hill plantation at about 150m O.D. The church may have been a foundation of the 12th century, and there was a dedication in 1243; it was granted to Coupar Angus Abbey by Sir Hugh de Abernethy in about 1285. The parish was suppressed in 1667, after which the church was allowed to fall into ruin. Only the partly-reconstructed lower walls of the church survive, showing it to have been a rectangular structure measuring c. 21m (E-W) by 7m (N-S) externally. The walls are c. 1m thick by 0.3-0.5m high, except for a fragment of the N wall at the E end which has been rebuilt to a height of c. 2m. Here an inscription states that this was the burial place of the Bowers of Kingoldrum in the 18th century, and that the foundations of the church were exposed by excavation in 1926. A handsome sacrament house, discovered in 1926, has been rebuilt into this modern wall; it has an ogee-headed locker framed by a border decorated with vine trail and capped by pinnacles, the locker having leaf crockets and finial. There is a doorway in the N wall, c. 5m from the W wall. The doorway is c. 1m wide and shows the bases of finely moulded jambs. Another doorway is present immediately opposite this, in the S wall, and a further break in the S wall, measuring c. 1m wide and c. 6m from the E end may represent the position of a third doorway. Fragments of carved stones and old grave-slabs lie amid the thick undergrowth which covers the site. A low dry-stone wall still surrounds the

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.