The Churches of Badenoch
and
Strathspey

The eminent scholar, Prof. G.W.S. Barrow, published an article in the (1989) edition of Northern Scotland in which he examined the question of the ancient churches of Badenoch & Speyside in considerable detail.¹ In particulr, he focussed a great deal of his efforts on the parish of Invera'an {Inveravon} in an attempt to clarify the locations of the various chapels within its ecclesiastical Parish boundaries. It should also be noted here that Barrow's focus was on the period from 1130-1312, which means that a number of Parish churches had yet to be formed and were only chapels during this early period. Kirkmichael is a classic example of this as also, Barrow suggests, was Knockando. Of old, Kirkmichael was known as Lethenimichel - there are various spellings - which compried a half-dabhach of land supporting the chapel of St Michael. This chapel was a dependency of the mother church of St Peter at Invera'an, some 14km away.

Barrow stated that:

 

The table below summarizes the information given in Barrow's article and adds the precise locations of the churches in question.³

 

The parishes listed above comprised the ecclesiastical deanery of Strathspey, one of the four that made up the whole diocese of Moray (the others being Inverness, Elgin, and Strathbogie). The deanery was administered by a dean of christianty who acted as the Archdeacon of Moray's lieutenant in these parts. These deans of christianity are shaddowy figures in the historical record, but their function seems to have been very similar to the rural or area deans who are so much a part of the present-day administration of the Church of England. They had a measure of responsibility for the disciplining of the clergy; they convened local synods as required; they acted as an avenue for communication between the diocesan bishop (and archdeacon) and the parishes; they were involved, to an extent, in the institution of clergy to the various cures within the deanery. In a deanery which covered such a large geographical area, the role of the dean of christianty would have been onerous and must have involved much travelling. Very few individuals who held the position in Speyside have left their mark in the historical record. However, there is one, Gregory, who is found to have held the position as far back as 1226. ⁴

One remarkable feature of this group of churches is that so many of them are of great antiquity, reaching back to the very first days of the Early Church in this part of the country. They carry dedications to the early saints who trod the mountain paths and they are often positioned close to lost communities whose very existence is now revealed only in the archaeological record. In particular, a close association is revealed between many of the church sites and symbol-stones or cross-incised stones. (In the table above, each '●' represents that a cross-incised stone or a symbol-stone is present at the site.)

 

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References .