The small fragment of ancient work left at Forgandenny, a few miles
south of Perth, along with the more important remains in the district,
point to the importance of Strathearn in early times. That this has been
originally a Norman church there can be no doubt, and it is suggestive
and interesting to find such work here and at Dunning, each about two
miles distant from Forteviot, the residence of the early Pictish kings.
The building is still in use as the parish church, but has been greatly
altered at various times, and now it is only in some bits of detail that
its antiquity can be detected. It measures on the inside (Fig. 1460) 70
feet 7 inches long by 21 feet 7 inches wide.
The east wall is in the main of Norman masonry. It has a splayed base,
which returns at each corner, but is soon lost, as shown on Plan, by
the rapid rising of the ground towards the west. From the east end the
ground slopes downwards to a wooded dell which skirts the churchyard on
that side.
Two widely splayed narrow windows are shown on the Plan in the east
wall, but only the built centre mullion or pier now exists. It is of
fine masonry, in four courses 2 feet 10 inches high, and is set at a
height to the sill of about 8 or 9 feet above the floor. These windows
have been built up, and all traces of them were lost till an examination
of the wall for the purpose of preparing this Plan revealed their
existence.
[Illustration: FIG. 1460.--Forgandenny Church. Plan.]
Two or three windows in the side walls, with double splays on the
exterior, probably belong to the fifteenth century. They are
square-headed, and have been greatly knocked about. In the north wall
there is a peculiar narrow door about 2 feet 3 inches wide, splayed on
the exterior and lintelled like the windows just mentioned.
The doorway to the church, which is now built up, was in the south side
near the west end. It appears to have been of Norman work, and a small
piece of its enrichment still remains, consisting (Fig. 1461) of the
trigonal moulding with a double notch enrichment, frequently found in
the outer member of Norman arches. At some later time a porch has been
added, as shown on the Plan, when probably the Norman door was
dismembered, and the fragment now shown was built into the wall.
Sometime after the Reformation, a laird’s seat (belonging to the
Oliphants
[Illustration: FIG. 1461.--Forgandenny Church.