St Meddans Cemetery

Fintray, Aberdeenshire

Address: St Meddans Cemetery, Fintray, Cothall, Aberdeenshire, AB21 0HU

Latitude: 57.230507

Longitude: -2.213750

Find A Grave Link: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2361310/st-meddans-fintray47 memorials

Website: -

Description: After the parish kirk migrated to Hatton of Fintray in 1703, St Meddan’s appears to have fallen out of use as a place of burial. Then, in the later 18th century, the area within the walls of the abandoned kirk came to be used as a private burial ground for the family of Forbes of Craigievar , and later still, the kirkyard came to be used for burials of people from the Forbes estates. But there had been burials much earlier than any of these. In “Jottings on the Parish of Fintray” (1901) the Minister, the Rev. John Catto, included drawings of 5 “Old Gravestones”, two with memorial inscriptions, the others bearing only symbols. The two inscriptions were transcribed by John Henderson, and published in his “Aberdeenshire Epitaphs and Inscriptions” in 1907. In a survey conducted by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland in 1996, just 4 stones are mentioned and described (although, as there was lying snow at the time of the survey, they managed to locate only 3 of them, and thought one was face-down). In fact, these 4 stones are all still visible, and the horizontal ones are the right way up. But what of the 5th stone? I have a theory. The outline of a rough stone just south of the gateway into the Forbes Enclosure (no 21) is remarkably like the illustrated shape of the “missing” stone. RCAHMS also reported that: “A number of carved fragments formerly lay along the S wall of the burial enclosure, but since a previous visit in 1991, these have been removed, and their present location is unknown.” As the eastern surface of stone 21 is visibly flaking away, I suspect that this may be the missing stone, and that the “carved fragments” were the remains of the inscription which had fallen off under the action of rain and frost. Some observers have claimed a “Pictish” or a “Templar” origin for one or other of the three stones which bear only symbols (numbers 14, 26 and 40); RCAHMS rather more conservatively describes them as “mediaeval”. At the time of publication, St Meddan’s remains in private hands, and is not subjected to the regular “short-back-and-sides” treatment favoured by the Council’s maintenance staff. As a result, the nettles grow waist-high in summer, and it can become difficult to find some stones, or read them without getting stung – and without twisting an ankle in the hidden rabbit-holes. Some people are offended by the “unkempt” state of the kirkyard, although I have to say I find it atmospheric, and a fitting illustration of mortality. But if you want to see the stones, go in winter or early spring, when the vegetation has died back, and before the surrounding trees are in leaf.