Building record MHG17561 - Rosskeen Parish Church

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NH 6883 6925 (31m by 26m)
Map sheet NH66NE
Geographical Area ROSS AND CROMARTY
Old County ROSS-SHIRE
Civil Parish ROSSKEEN

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

Substantial single build structure. Not now in use and all the buildings blocke up/ Showing erosion damage to S face in places. Lies to W of and dominates the earlier church remains to E. Lies within large expanding graveyard still in use - HAW 3/2004

See also:
NH66NE0060 Graveyard
NH66NE0077 Munro Mausoleum
Jhooper, 28/8/2002
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Easter Ross Local Plan, July 1992: P31/4.29. PROPOSAL - The Council will sponsor a students study during 90/91 on the feasibility of converting Rosskeen Church into a visitor centre.
J Aitken : 06/06/01
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NH66NE 13 688 692.
(NH 6884 6925) Church (TU)
(NH 6887 6928) Church (TU) (Site of)
(NH 6885 6927) Chapel (LB) (In Ruins)

According to the ONB (1874) the published site is that of the immediate predecessor of the present parish church (built 1832), and the ruins are those of a yet earlier church.
Maclean (1886), however, implies that the ruins are those of the immediate predecessor of the present church. The ruin is now used as a burial-place of the Munros. Its triple lancet windows suggest that it might date from the 13th or 14th centuries.
Name Book 1874; R Maclean 1886; Anon 1937.

The existing church, erected in 1832, is no longer in use but the graveyard is still in use.
According to a plaque inside the building shown as a ruined chapel on the OS 25" map, it is a mausoleum of the Munro family, erected in 1664 and restored in 1908. The site of the church, stated by the ONB (1874) to be the immediate predecessor of the 1832 church, is overlain by burial enclosures and a number of pre-1832 graves.
However, among the burial enclosures - six in all, five of which are unroofed - there is a ruined stretch of walling forming a side-wall (17.0m long) and an end-wall (6.5m long) of what could be the remains of an early church or chapel, orientated ENE by WSW. This walling, of which part of the N side of the long wall has been removed, varies between 0.6m and 1.0m in width, and is of uncoursed rubble with pinnings, bonded with shell mortar.
Resurveyed at 1/2500. Visited by OS (R B) 24 March 1966.

REFERENCE:
Mr Hay, Moray Place states that he has recorded this to some extent.

Sources/Archives (5)

  • --- Text/Publication/Article: Maclean, R. 1886. 'The Parish of Rosskeen', Trans Gaelic Soc Inverness Vol. 12 1885-6, p.324-39. Trans Gaelic Soc Inverness. 324-39. 337.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Anon. 1936. Official guide to Invergordon. 1st. 18.
  • --- Text/Report: RCAHMS. 1979. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Easter Ross, Ross and Cromarty District, Highland Region. . 28, No. 235.
  • --- Text/Publication/Article: Stell, G. 1986. Architecture and society in Easter Ross before 1707. SHG1943. 99-132. 126.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Name Book (County). Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey. Book No. 2, 107, 109.

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Protected Status/Designation

Related Monuments/Buildings (2)

Related Events/Activities (0)

Record last edited

Mar 23 2011 11:32AM

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