Daviot

The church of Daviot is one of the oldest in the diocese of Moray. We are told that, "in the times of the Celtic Church there were churches at Daviot and Mid Lairgs"¹ although no trace of these early establishments remains to be seen toay. This locality has been home to communities of ancient peoples since the earliest of days and the visitor does not have to look too hard to find them. We have an array of cup-marked stones in and about the churchyard, a promontory fort (Dùn Davie), a ring cairn, hut circles and field systems. All these point to the importance of Daviot as a settlement and it is not surprising that it attracted the early missionaries.

Daviot has been variously known as - Deveth, Davit, Edindivach, Edyndiuy, and Edendiuach. In very early times it was a 'mensal'church but, sometime after 1206, it was given to the cathedral to provide funds towards the 'fabric'. (vide infra)

It is on record that Daviot had a glebe consisting of 9 acres of arable land and 8 acres of rough pasture.² Between the church and the old manse there is an elongated hummock known as Cnoc an-T-Sagairt, "the Priest's Hill".

It is probable that the ancient barony of Kerdale comprised most of the parish lands, stretching from just beyond Daviot itself in the north, as far as Dunmaglass {NGR NH 609239}in the south, thus occupying the southern-most parts of Strathnairn.

Other Churches and Chapels in the parish .

Mid Lairgs: There was a chapel of the Early Church here¹ but little or nothing is known about it. There must also have been a significant population centre here to attract the missionaries and to have left, in even earlier times, a suggested passage grave of the 'Clava type'. However, much of the remains have been completely lost due to vast sand and gravel quarrying activities which seem to have taken no account of what lay there before.

"As far as is known, there were five churches in Strath Nairn in the days of the Celtic Church. There was the one ... at Brinmore {NGR NH 664289} behind Creagan an Tuirc on the summit of which are the remains of a hillfort. Bones were dug up there in the course of land improvement last century. There was a church at Daviot {NGR NH 724394}. Another was at Mid Lairgs {NGR NH 714364}, the site of which is no more as the quarry operations there have obliterated every trace of it. There is said to have been one at Dunmaglass but its site is now unknown {c.NGR NH 609238}. The stones of one at Bunachton are still to be seen and two names in connection with it - Cathair an t-Sagairt, "the priest's chair"; and Tobar an t-Sagairt, "the priest's well" - are still known. When the corn 'breared', the marks of old graves could be seen. {crop-marks}"¹⁰

A number of 'sources' suggest that Daviot was annexed to Pluscarden Priory but I have found no evidence at all of this and so discount it. It is possible that they confused Daviot with Dores.

The parish of Daviot was united with that of Dunlichty (Lundichty) sometime c.1618¹¹ and this is one of the classical examples of Ross presenting information relating to post-Reformation times in a thesis whose focus was purported to be between the years 1000 and 1230. He presented no evidence to show how many and which dabhaichean belonged to which parish. It would appear that the united parish of Daviot & Lundichty was made up of eleven dabhaichean and, in the following table, I have taken the liberty to suggest which belonged to Daviot and which to Dunlichty (Lundichty) based purely on speculation and the geography of the area.