St Ethernan's Church

Heritage listing

Date Added 30/11/1993 Supplementary Information Updated 29/05/2018 Type Ecclesiastical: church Local Authority Aberdeenshire Parish Rathen NGR NK 00114 60961 Coordinates 400114, 860961 — The monument consists of the remains of St Ethernan's, the old parish church of Rathen. The present edifice dates from the seventeenth century and occupies the site of an earlier church, first on record as a parsonage between 1207 and 1228. The church was dedicated to St Ethernan (Eddran), the early Christian saint who is said to have consecrated a church at "Rethin" in the sixth century. The present church occupying the site bears the date 1633 on its S aisle. The remains of the main part of the church consist of the intact W gable, part of the S wall and a round-arched opening (partly blocked) to the S aisle. The building measures 7.8m N-S and has been at least 20m from E-W over walls 0.8m thick. The W gable has a shouldered-arched doorway below a semi-circular headed window with roll-moulded jambs. The aisle, originally crowstepped, is dated 1633 and projects 10.45m from the S wall. In the W wall of the aisle is a round-arched doorway with a draw-bar hole. Above the door is a panel with the inscription, "Alexander Fraser of Philorth, Patron", a coat of arms and part of a broken inscription. In the E wall of the aisle is an ogee-headed aumbry, and a rectangular recess, probably a piscina to the S of it. The lower skewputt stones on the aisle are carved: that on the W with a human face, the E one with a ram's head. The walls of the nave are rubble-built but much of the upper part of the church was probably rebuilt when a new bellcote was added in 1782. A diamond shaped sundial (1625) which probably fell from the S wall of the aisle has been fixed to the W wall of the main body of the c

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.