[Illustration: FIG. 701.--Auchindoir Church. Plan.]
[Illustration: FIG. 702.--Auchindoir Church. View from South-East.]
The ruined church of Auchindoir is situated in a remote part of Upper
Aberdeenshire, about six miles south-west from Kennethmont Station,
between Insch and Huntly. It stands on a slight elevation near the mouth
of the Craig Burn, which joins the river Bogie a short
[Illustration: FIG. 703.--Auchindoir Church. South Doorway.]
distance below. It has been pointed out by Mr. Jervise[107] that the
orientation of the church is peculiar, as it stands more north and south
than east and west; but in the following description the usual
orientation is assumed. The church is a simple oblong (Fig. 701),
measuring 50 feet in length by 19 feet 6 inches in width internally. Mr.
Jervise thinks it has been added to at the west end, and it has at least
been altered at that point, and a belfry added on the top of the gable
(Fig. 702). The rest of the building has also been considerably altered,
and a doorway inserted in the east end and square windows introduced to
make it suitable for Presbyterian worship.
Towards the west end there are two doorways, opposite one another, in
the north and south walls. That in the south wall (Fig. 703) is a fine
specimen of early first pointed work. The round arch is retained (as is
common in Scotland), but the details are all of first pointed design.
The section of the jamb and arch mouldings (Fig. 704) and the dog-tooth
enrichment of the label are clear indications of that style. Mr. Jervise
doubts whether these features are genuine, and suspects that they are
late imitations of the first pointed style; but Mr. Muir has no doubt
about the doorway being of “late transition work, belonging, apparently,
to that precise period in the progress of the art when the already
softened features of the Normans were beginning to merge altogether into
the still more flexible and varied forms of the first pointed style.”
This opinion is confirmed by all the features of the doorway. The bold
foliaged caps on each side (of which the detached shafts are gone) are
undoubted proofs of the genuine nature of the work. This doorway could
never have been produced in later times.
[Illustration: FIG. 704.--Auchindoir Church. South Doorway: Jamb and
Arch Moulding.]
The north doorway is simple, having a plain round arch with a splay on
edge, and a recess for a bolt in the ingoing.
The church contains a simple piscina in the south wall, and a very
elaborate ambry, or sacrament house (Fig. 705), in the north wall near
the east end. The decorated adjuncts of this ambry are about 6 feet in
height. The opening is moulded, and has a quasi buttress on each side,
crowned with a crocketed pinnacle in a late style of art. A pointed
roof, or flat canopy, rises over the ambry, having on the top a
representation of the crucifixion, with a skull carved at the base; over
the cross is a scroll bearing the letters I N R I. There are two scrolls
on the roof, carved with the inscription, HIC·Ē CORP DUĒ C V M, and on
the sill of the ambry, M·A·S·, which inscription Mr. Jervise renders
thus: “Here is the body of our Lord, with Mary, the Apostles, and
Saints.” The ambry has an inner recess on the left side.
This work is evidently very late in style, but it can scarcely be so
late as Mr. Jervise supposes. He says:--“I am inclined to ascribe the
erection of the Sacrament House, if not the Kirk, of Auchindoir to the
laird and lady whose arms and initials are upon shields within it. One
of these shields, dated 1557, bears the Gordon arms and motto, HOIP IN
[Illustration: FIG. 705.--Auchindoir Church. Sacrament House.]
GOD; the second, initialed V·G:C·C·, presents the arms of Gordon and
Cheyne, impaled with the motto, GRACE ME GYID.”
There can be no doubt that Mr. Jervise is in error as to the church
being erected in 1557; but it was probably altered at that date, as the
eastern or priests’ doorway in the south wall (which is now square
headed, and has a transome and upper light over it) bears the date 1557.
That was probably the time when the church was altered for Presbyterian
worship. The sculptured ambry was probably executed in the early part of
the sixteenth century, before the Reformation.
In 1513-14 the Church of Auchindoir was erected into a prebend of King’s
College Chapel, Aberdeen. That would be a likely time for the
introduction of the sacrament house. The building continued to be
employed for divine service till 1810, when a new church was erected in
the neighbourhood. The old churchyard which surrounds the old church is
still used for interment.
When this church ceased to be used for service, the roof and woodwork
were sold, and some of the panelling, including the back of the pulpit,
which is carved with shields, is preserved in a farmhouse in the
vicinity.