St Vigeans Parish Church - Arbroath, Angus, Scotland
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 34.596 W 002° 35.425
30V E 525163 N 6270332
Bell tower on the western side of the hilltop church of St Vigeans, an ancient hamlet on the northern side of the Angus coastal town of Arbroath.
Waymark Code: WM1960Z
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/03/2023
Views: 0
St Fechin of Fohbar (Latin - Vigianus) was an Irish saint who died in 664AD. A monastery in his name was set up on this site in 700AD on a mound between two streams which is largely man-made.
A church was rebuilt on the site in the 12th century and consecrated by Bishop David de Bernham of St Andrews in 1242.
The tower at the western end was heightened in 1485, and then further extended with a saddle roof during a restoration by Roland Anderson in 1871.
The square tower, like the rest of the church in the local pinkish-red sandstone with a slated roof, is the most prominent feature of the church. A small Norman style doorway sits at its foot on the western face, and pointed-arch louvred belfry openings are the main features on each face under a corralled parapet, where above, the saddle roof rises. Narrow slit openings abound throughout the tower, more in keeping with fortified structures.
After the 1871-72 restoration, a single bell hung within the tower, but this was replaced in 1902 with a ring of five tubular bells from Coventry, which were gifted by Mr A. Weir of Kinmonth, Perthshire.