Monument record MHG3381 - Convinth Old Parish Church

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> 2), 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) <2>
(St. Erchard waw a disciple of St. Ternan. St. Ternan lived in the 5th century). (W D Simpson 1935) <4>
T Wallace 1911 <3>

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