St. Drostan's Episcopal Church - Tarfside, Angus.
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 54.376 W 002° 50.226
30V E 509920 N 6306963
Scottish Episcopal church built in 1879, in the hamlet of Tarfside up Glen Esk in the county of Angus in Scotland.
Waymark Code: WMVR86
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/22/2017
Views: 0
St. Drostan was a Scottish abbot who lived around AD600 and was founder of the monastery at Old Deer in Aberdeenshire. He moved to Glen Esk and became a hermit whose sanctity attracted the poor and needy and many miracles were ascribed to him, including restoring the sight to a priest named Symon. After his death in the glen his relics were tranclased to the church at New Aberdour.
The church in the glen named after him is the fourth episcopal church built in Glen Esk, the previous three having been either burned down or demolished. It was built by Lord Forbes in memory of his brother Alexander Penrose Forbes, Bishop of Brechin who died in 1875.
The church was built from 1878-79 to a design by Matthews and Mackenzie of Aberdeen. It is situated in Tarfside, the only sizeable settlement in the 15 mile long glen that is the most easterly of the Angus Glens, valleys that eat their way northwards into the Grampian Mountains.
It is built of large coursed granite blocks with the roofs of the nave, cancel and porch all slated.
The south elevation has three pointed arch windows and the gabled porch has small buttresses on either side of a pointed-arch doorway. The side walls have small pointed-arch windows and the gable head has a stone cross finial.
At the east end is a large asked chancel with several pointed arch windows. The apex of the chancel roof has a small metal finial.
At the west end there are three tall lancet windows, the central one being larger. Below the apex of the gable is an unusual slated bellcote.
The north elevation has no windows or features, this is the only side not visible from the road.
The church has a service every second Sunday during the summer months at 2.30pm. Visitors are encouraged to visit.
It is situated on the west side of the hamlet amidst greenery just over the bridge that crosses the Water of Tarf, a subsiduary of the nearby River North Esk. Despite the size of Tarfside this is amazingly one of two churches in the hamlet, the other being the Church of Scotland Maule Church which is just outside Tarfside on the approach to the south-east.