The Kirk of St Ternan - Arbuthnott, Aberdeenshire.
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 51.769 W 002° 19.652
30V E 541000 N 6302316
Church dating from the 13th century, now under the Church of Scotland denomination, in the countryside of The Mearns in eastern Scotland.
Waymark Code: WM13ZPR
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/20/2021
Views: 0
The Kirk of St Ternan was named for a local man born into a Pictish family in the 5th century who became an Abbot in a monastic settlement in Leinster, Ireland, before moving back to the area around The Mearns, a large rural area in the southern part of Aberdeenshire, formerly Kincardineshire.
In the midst of the area is the parish of Arbuthnott, some three miles inland from the coastal town of Inverbervie. It was here in a wooded valley near the Bervie Water that a church was built in the 13th century as part of the Collegiate Church of St Mary at St.Andrews.
Opened on August 3rd 1242, it was dedicated to David de Bernham, the Bishop of St.Andrews, and built of red sandstone in an Early English style.
In 1500, Sir Robert Arbuthnott of that Ilk, added both the south burial aisle, and a circular bell tower on the west gable.
The church survived the reformation, and is one of the few left in Scotland that did so, however a fire in 1889 damaged the nave, and a restoration project was carried out by A.M. MacKenzie.
Today the church is now still active and in the denomination of the Church of Scotland with a service every Sunday at 10.00am. Arbuthnott parish was merged with the neighbouring parishes of Bervie and Kinneff.
The church can be found south of the B967 road at Arbuthnott via a narrow public road. A graveyard lies on the southern and western sides, and includes the family plot of Leslie Mitchell, local novelist under the pen-name of Lewis Grassic Gibbon.