Kincardine Church
Kincardine Church
Parish of Boat of Garten, Duthil and Kincardine
As our Minister, Rev David Whyte retired on 31st January the congregation along with Boat of Garten and Duthil our currently without a Minister. We are being looked after by the Rev Morris Smith, Grantown on Spey.
Although it is plain and simple, Kincardine is of considerable historic interest. Like Alvie and Insh it was probably founded in or around the 7th Century by Celtic missionaries from Iona. The foundations of the existing building are 12th Century and the Lepers Squint in the walls indicates that the walls themselves were built prior to the Reformation.
Visitors to the Kirk will note the hollowed out granite block by the front door – possibly used as a font or container for Holy Water and it is conceivable that it was put out of the Kirk at the time of the Reformation. Next door to it is a mortsafe – a relic of the times of Grave robbing at the end of the 18th century.
It’s history has not always been so calm and peaceful as its location. Towards the end of the 15th Century a raiding party of Cummings were trapped in it by their arch enemies the Shaws and the kirk was set afire and destroyed along with its incumbents.
Looking through the grave yard gives a wonderful insight into what was once a very populous area. Worshippers came from throughout the Kincardine foothills, from Pityoulish itself and even through the Sluggan from Glenmore. Perhaps the most interesting of the gravestones is that near the Kirk door dedicated to the Stewarts, Barons of Kincardine, who held that Barony from 1374 until 1683 (the Barony itself encompassed the whole of Glenmore and the Kincardine Hills).
The wonderful gnarled old tree by the entrance to the grave yard is a dwarf elder – a tree common in Lochaber but not here. On her deathbed the wife of the 5th Baron – a Cameron – wanted to be buried in the soil of her beloved Lochaber. Soil containing the seeds of this dwarf elder was therefore brought from her home land for this purpose and the tree has been here ever since.
If you choose to visit please stop awhile, enjoy the tranquility and sign the Visitors Book.
St Columba’s Church
Parish of Boat of Garten, Duthil and Kincardine
St Columba's Church
As our Minster, Rev David Whyte, retired at the end of January the two congregations are by looked after by the Rev Morris Smith of Grantown on Spey.
When the railway came in the mid 19th century there was no church in Boat of Garten. Worshippers went to either Kincardine or Duthil. Because of the distances to the other churches and the burgeoning population of the village it became the practice towards the end of the 19th century to hold services of an evening in the local school, the waiting room of the railway on a so-called Missionary basis – i.e an outpost of the established church of Duthil.
In 1881 a number of local worthies – notably the Minister of Duthil, the Missionary Minister, the Stationmaster, the Postmaster and the Station Hotel Keeper approached the Seafield Estates with a petition for the establishment of a Missionary Station and the building of a place for it. Money had already been promised by the Church of Scotland.
or some reason nothing happened until the end of the century when records show that a feu charter had been granted by the estate and in summer 1900 the church was finished at a cost of some £820.00.
St Columba’s Church
Kincardine was joined to Boat in 1911 – the whole still on a missionary basis from Duthil. The United Free Church who had been using the village hall (built at the turn of the century), joined the Church of Scotland in 1929 – thus strengthening the church and its usage and its independence – although the church only became independent in 1931.
Shortly after that, in 1932 and in some ways to celebrate this authorised permanent status the Manse was built. In 1934 the Church Hall was added and it remains one of the focuses of village life.
