Rathven () is an ecclesiastical parish, village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the historic County of Banff, now 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' ...

, Scotland. The civil parish was last used as a census subdivision in 2001, with a population of 12,378, The former

burgh A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...

Buckie Buckie () is a burgh town (defined as such in List of burghs in Scotland, 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was ...

is the largest settlement in the parish, which also includes

Findochty Findochty (pronounced , , ) is a village in Moray, Scotland, on the shores of the Moray Firth; historically it was part of Banffshire. The Gaelic name of the village was recorded by Diack using his own transcription method as ''fanna-guchti'', ...

and

Portknockie Portknockie (, the hilly port) is a coastal village on the Moray Firth within Moray, Scotland. The village's name is written as Portknockies in the Old Parish Registers. This would suggest that the port's name referred to not one, but two rock ...

Churches

A medieval church dedicated to St Peter was built before the Reformation. The Rannas Aisle of 1612 is all that remains of the early church. This was built by the Hays of Rannas. In 1224, John Bisset, linked to the church, built a leper hospital. This was later converted into a Bedesman Hospital. At the time of the Reformation the church was under the control of St Mary's Collegiate Church in Cullen.''Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae''; by Hew Scott The Roman Catholic St Peter's Church is in the town of Buckie. It is sometimes inaccurately referred to as a cathedral.

St Gregory's Church, Preshome St. Gregory's Church is a Roman Catholic church at Preshome near Buckie in north-east Scotland. It is protected as a category A listed building. Built in 1788, St. Gregory's was the first church building to be openly built by Catholics in Sco ...

and

St Ninian's Church, Tynet St Ninian's Church, Tynet is a historic Roman Catholic clandestine church located at Tynet about 4 miles to the west of Buckie, Scotland in the Enzie region. Erected in 1755, it is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic church built in Scotland a ...

are served from here. The church was built in 1851–7 to a design by Bishop James Kyle and Alexander and William Reid. In 1907 the chancel, altar and baptistry were altered by

Charles Jean Ménart Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

, who also designed St Aloysius Church, Glasgow.

Notable people

George Hay was the first post-Reformation minister of the parish and served as

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...

in March 1571. Rev William Scrogie, minister from 1649 to 1667, leaving to take his position as

Bishop of Argyll The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into ...

. The Addison family in Rathven can be traced back to the 17th century and this branch includes the Canadian-Czech philanthropist, Vincent Peter Addison (d. 2007) and the travel writer, David M. Addison whose latest work "Confessions of a Banffshire Loon" contains much information about the Addisons of Rathven as well as the Addisons of nearby Portknockie where Joseph Addison was the first Provost. There are also a couple of chapters on the Gordons of Letterfourie who were the lairds of Rathven.davidmaddison.org
retrieved 20 November 2013

References

Villages in Moray Buckie {{moray-geo-stub

Churches

Notable people

See also

References