St Barevan's Church

Heritage listing

Date Added 29/12/1971 Last Date Amended 29/03/2001 Type Crosses and carved stones: tombstone, Ecclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard; church Local Authority Highland Parish Cawdor NGR NH 83685 47253 Coordinates 283685, 847253 — The monument consists of the remains of the St Barevan's Church and its burial ground. St Barevan's was the parish church of Barevan or Cawdor until it was superseded in 1619. The church was originally scheduled in 1971. On this occasion, an inadequate area was included to protect all of the archaeological remains: the present rescheduling rectifies this. There is little known of the history of the church. The dedication to St Barevan (AD 500-550) and the existence of a quadrangular iron hand-bell at Cawdor Castle, supposedly from St Barevan's, suggests that it may have early Christian origins. Certain details of the building however, resemble those found at nearby Rait castle, and suggests that much of the fabric of the church dates from the late 13th/early 14th century. The church measures approximately 21.5m E-W by 6m and is complete to near wall-head level on its N and S sides only. The E and W gables collapsed in the 19th century, but were reportedly crowstepped; architectural fragments lying beside the S wall of the church include a number of crowsteps. The walls are of well-coursed rubble with fine dressings in yellow and red sandstone. The church is a single-chambered structure, although a plain freestone corbel appears to indicate the position of the rood screen, dividing off a chancel approximately 10m in length. There are no indications of windows in the nave, only the normal arrangement of N and S doors; the N door is now blocked, the S has a draw-bar hole, and both have lost their dressings. The chancel was well lit with

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.