Monument record MHG31357 - Convinth Old Parish Church, graveyard

NH53NW 2.00 5120 3746
NH53NW 2.01 Centred NH 5123 3748 Cemetery; Sculptured stones; Cup-markings

(NH 5120 3746) Chapel {NR} (In Ruins)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1906)

This was once the parish church of Convinth (W Jolly 1882) <1> and was dedicated to St. Lawrence. Convinth was a parish in 1221. The churchyard contains some early stones, including one bearing a horse and rider, suggestive of the Celtic period. There are also two cup-marked stones, one with two cups, the other with four.
Glen-convinth church is traditionally said to have been founded by a companion of St Erchard.(W MacKay 1893) <3>
(St. Erchard waw a disciple of St. Ternan. St. Ternan lived in the 5th century). (W D Simpson 1935) <4>
T Wallace 1911 <2>

St Lawrence's Church - possibly of 16/17th century date, with no trace of earlier structure - is built of random masonry, roughly coursed with rubble infilling and measures approx 22.0m by 6.8m within a wall 1.0m thick. The SW gable and the NW wall stand to a maximum height of c.2.5 m, and part of the SE wall survives as a foundation, but the NE gable is destroyed. Graves occupy the interior. The burial ground is still in use.
The stone bearing the horse and rider, and the two cup-marked stones, could not be located and there is no local knowledge of them.
Visited by OS (R D) 9 Feburary 1970

'Inverness District West Monumental Inscriptions', pre 1855
Monumental inscription survey completed by Alastair G Beattie & Margaret H Beattie . The survey may not include inscription information after 1855 and each inscription transcribed does not give the full details that appear on the stones, abbreviations used. Some ommissions and inacuracies may be encountered. First published 1993, reprinted 1994. <5>

This site was photographed during a walkover survey in 2008. <6>