Mortlach Parish Church is a church within the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

serving the parish of Mortlach, in

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

, close to the village of

Dufftown Dufftown ( ) is a burgh in Moray, Scotland. While the town is part of the historic Mortlach parish, the town was established and laid out in the early 19th century as part of a planned new town settlement. The town has several listed 19th centur ...

. The site of the church has long been associated with Christianity, going back perhaps as far as 566 when St Moluag is said to have founded a religious community there. A Class II

Pictish stone A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the River Clyde, Clyde-River Forth, Forth line and on the Eastern side of the ...

, dating from between the seventh and ninth centuries, was discovered there, which can now be seen in the burial ground. There was a

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

on the site in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, prior to it being moved to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in the reign of King David I. The current church retains some of the fabric of a thirteenth-century structure, which has been repeatedly remodelled in the centuries that followed, most recently in 1931. The church, along with the surrounding burial ground and a watch house within the grounds, has been designated a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

Description

Mortlach Parish Church is built in a T-plan, and much of the existing structure dates to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but it incorporates substantial amounts of mediaeval and post-mediaeval fabric. The nave, which reflects the plan of the original thirteenth-century building, is rectangular, oriented east-west, with a nineteenth-century aisle projecting from the north side. Apart from the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

end of the north aisle which is of exposed

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, the walls of the church are harled, with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

detailing. The south elevation has a central gabled bay, protruding about a metre from the rest of the wall. This has three narrow lancet windows, with a

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

window above in the gable. The east gable, which most closely resembles how the church would have looked in mediaeval times, and which, along with the monuments, was the reason for its listing, has three narrow stained-glass

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s, spaced widely apart, the outer two around ground level, and the central one rising up into the gable. The west gable also retains an original mediaeval window. The two main entrances are at either end of the gable of the north aisle, separated by large point-headed

tripartite Tripartite means composed of or split into three parts, or refers to three parties. Specifically, it may also refer to any of the following: * 3 (number) * Tripartite alignment, in linguistics * Tripartite motto, or hendiatris, a figure of speech ...

window, and there is a stair on the north side of the main part of the church which gives access to the galleries. An octagonal

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

on the apex of the gable of the north aisle, made of ashlar and slightly

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

led out.

Interior

The north aisle houses a collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century tombstones, including that of Alexander Leslie of Kininvie, dated to around 1549, and Alexander Duff of Keithmore, and his wife Helen Grant, dated 1694. There is also a large stone finial with a sundial in one face, which is presumed to have been mounted on one of the gables at some point in the building's history. At the east end of the nave is a raised

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, which features a marble

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

, and wooden

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

and

communion table Communion table and Lord's table are terms used by many Protestant churches—particularly from Reformed, Baptist and low church Anglican and Methodist bodies—for the table used for preparation of Holy Communion (a sacrament also called the ...

dating from the 1930s. There are wooden pews throughout the nave and the north aisle, also from the 1930s. There are galleries in the north aisle, and at the west end of the nave; the one in the nave houses a large pipe organ.

Watch House

Included within the designation is the church's watch house, which is a small polygonal building with a pointed window. This building is in a state of some disrepair, with cracks in the walls and some missing or slipped slates in the roof, and it was added to the

Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records buildings of national architectural or historic interest which are considered to be under threat. The list is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland (HES). The register was established in 1 ...

in 2008.

Burial Ground

The burial ground, which has been extended and is still in use, is also included within the designation. It is irregularly shaped and surrounded by rubble walls with spear-head railing, and contains tombstones dating from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Amongst these are a number of Commonwealth war graves from the first and second world wars. Also to be found in the burial ground is

pictish stone A Pictish stone is a type of monumental stele, generally carved or incised with symbols or designs. A few have ogham inscriptions. Located in Scotland, mostly north of the River Clyde, Clyde-River Forth, Forth line and on the Eastern side of the ...

known as the Battle Stone. It is a Class II stone, featuring a

Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

and carvings of various animals and monsters. The stone is thought to date from some point between the seventh and ninth centuries, and is traditionally believed to commemorate a battle, but this is not certain.

History

The site where Mortlach Parish Church stands has an ancient association with Christianity. Although the records from the early period of its life are not entirely reliable, it is traditionally thought to be the site of a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

founded by St Moluag around the year 566, and King Malcolm II is thought to have extended a church already present on the site in 1010, to give thanks for winning a battle. Malcolm II is also believed to have established a

at Mortlach, and scholars generally accept that at least three bishops were based there prior to 1140. The bishopric was later moved to

during the reign of

David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland ...

. The earliest parts of the existing structure are from the thirteenth century. In the centuries that followed, the church underwent a series of extensions and remodelling, being converted first from a mediaeval to a Georgian style, then to

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

, and finally the more muted mediaeval style seen today. The north aisle was initially added in 1826, and it was extended in 1876 by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie. The projection on the south wall, which originally housed the organ and pulpit, also dates from this time. Work done at this time re-exposed the lancet windows in the east gable, which had been hidden during earlier renovation works; the church's mediaeval features were further restored during another period of restoration, in 1930–1931, undertaken by A. Marshall Mackenzie & Son. The nave was largely remodelled at this time, with the organ moved to the gallery to the west of the nave, and the pulpit and communion table moved to the raised chancel at the east end. Mortlach Parish Church, with its watch house and burial grounds, was designated a

Category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in 1972; it was upgraded to Category A in 1987.

Current Usage

Mortlach Parish Church is still in use as an active

place of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is s ...

, and a part of the

. It is presided over by Rev Eduard Enslin.

References

External links

Contact details3D model of the Battle Stone
{{Former cathedrals in Scotland Listed churches in Scotland Former Roman Catholic churches in Scotland Church of Scotland churches in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Moray Medieval cathedrals in Scotland Glen Fiddich Churches in Moray