Kilmuir Easter

Associated Chapels: Delny {NGR NH 734723}; Balnagown House {NGR NH 763752}.

Parish Church: OS Ref: NGR NH 758732 H.E.S. No: NH77SE 3 Dedication: B.V.M.

This church is on the site of a much older Chapel of St Mary.

Probably a prebend of Ross by 1274, when the parsonage and vicarage were separately assessed, it was certainly a prebend by 1457/8 and so continued to the time of the Reformation, the cure then being a vicarage perpetual.

The Munros of Milton were probably responsible for the eye-catching turreted burial-aisle, which is dated 1616, and stands at the eastern end of Kilmuir Easter church. The tower may have offered a sea-mark to vessels entering the Cromarty Firth. Although the tower bears the inscription 'Beigit 1616', the lower portion may well be of a much earlier date and it shows similarities with other towers such as at Abernethy and Brechin, and in Ireland. The small building joining to tower to the 'new' church has been used as a burial-vault of the Earls of Cromarty.

A new church was built in 1798 but the turret and the burial-aisle were retained as can be seen on the photograph below.

Return to top of page

e-mail: admin@cushnieent.com