Building record MHG2842 - Dalarossie Church

See also:
NH72SE0022 Graveyard
J Aitken : 09/12/02
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Phone call today from Rev. Lilian Bruce, Minister. Conducted a burial service there on 12/12/99 in a new burial ground extension. Noticed possible walling in the grave. Needs investigation

JW 16/12/99
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NMRS Notes:
NH72SE 2 7669 2419.

(NH 7669 2419) Church (NAT)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The present Dalarossie Church was built in 1790, with repairs and alterations by George Rhind in 1856, also W L Carruthers, 1904. A simple rectangular building orientated E-W, it occupies the site of the earliest church, dedicated to St Fergus, which is first mentioned 1224 x 42, when it was given to Elgin Cathedral. Dalarossie was joined to part of Moy parish in 1618.
OSA 1793; NSA (Inverness); A Jervise 1875-9; ISSFC 1895; R Macdougall 1895; J Mackinlay 1914; G Hay 1957; I B Cowan 1967.

NH72SE 1 7671 2420.
(NH 7671 2420 Clach an T-Sagairt (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The Priest's Stone was formerly situated on the N. side of Dalarossie churchyard (Jolly 1882) but was moved into the church by 1889 (ISSFC 1898). It is basin-shaped and said to have been used for baptismal purposes (Jolly 1882). It is included in a list of cup-marked stones by Romilly Allen (1882). The hole was drilled through the bottom in recent times (Jolly 1882).
W Jolly 1882; J R Allen 1882; ISSFC 1898.

Clach an t-Sagairt, a baptismal font as described and planned; not a cup-marked stone; still in Dalarossie Church.
Visited by OS (N K B) 8 November 1966.

See assoc. docs. File (gravestone photos).
J Aitken : 12/03/02.

Desc of church & font (Water used to cure warts). Said to be v old site although current church dates from 1790 + follow up story of Witch of Laggan. Inverness FC Vol IV, p64- HAW 9.2002


According to local tradition the bowl-shaped stone was supposedly found in the ground when the glebe land was being ploughed. It was then placed within the kirkyard, leaning against the gate, and was there within living memory. It was taken into the church during the incumbency of Mr Cameron (1932-40). It was created into a font in the 1940s on the recommendation of Miss Kathleen Mackenzie of Glenkyllachy and Ann Glynne-Percy's mother, Mrs Douglas Bulloch. The problem was supporting the bowl, since no support was found in the field. Ann Glynn-Percy and her mother searched the ruins of Harriet's Croft, near Old Dalarossie Schoolhouse, and found a suitable stone. Murdo MacAskill then crafted the font as it is today.
Information from Ann Glynne-Percy, Strathdearn News April 2001

Information on the Bargain Stone (also known as the Priest's Stone) from Ann Glynne-Percy, Strathdearn News, August 2001:
'The other item of stone within the Church, which goes back to olden days, is the Bargain, or Betrothal, Stone, also referred to as the Priests' Stone. I remember it firstly out of doors leaning in the corner by the porch but, more recently it has been placed indoors against the wall by the door to the vestry. It is approximately 3ft 4in tall, oblong, with a fist sized hold about 2/3 up from the base, fortunately not damaged when a fair chunk was once broken off one corner of the stone slab. As with the font, it is seemingly not of local natural material, but more like sandstone.' <1>