Snow Kirk

Old Machar, Aberdeen City

Address: Snow Kirk, College Bounds, Old Aberdeen, Aberdeen

Latitude: 57.162819

Longitude: -2.102422

Find A Grave Link: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2290397/snow-churchyard138 memorials

Website: -

Description: While it has remained in existence to the present day as a burial ground, particularly for clergy and adherents of the Roman Catholic church, the Snow Kirk actually had a comparatively brief flourishing as a place of worship. It was established in 1498 by Bishop Elphinstone to function as the Parish Kirk of Old Aberdeen, and its dedication to St Maria ad Nives was apparently based on the Bishop’s fascination with the founding legend of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. However, it did not long survive the Reformation, being annexed to St Machar’s in 1583, reported as dilapidated by 1619, and shown on Parson Gordon’s 1661 map as “rwins of the Snow Kirk”. Strangely, the burial ground does not appear to have attracted the attentions of Victorian and Edwardian antiquarians, and the earliest transcriptions of MIs date from the 20th Century. The indefatigable A. Strath Maxwell left a version (as ever, with no map or plan, less than complete, and in places demonstrably inaccurate) but he did see one or two stones which have since deteriorated significantly, so his versions of these have been included in the pages which follow. An apparently later (but anonymous and undated) set of notes lodged in the ANESFHS Library yielded a rough plan, and readings of all but the two most recent stones, albeit with some errors. The oldest inscription which can now be read is that on stone 14 to the memory of Sir Gilbert Menzies of Pitfodels and his wife. Unusually, we know the dates both of Sir Gilbert’s death and also of his burial, because an entry in the Burgh Records of Aberdeen record that on 29th August, 1669, the bells of St Nicholas were rung to mark Sir Gilbert’s interment at the Snow Kirk. Despite the fact that the burial was in a parish and a Burgh where his writ did not run, the Master of Kirk and Bridge Works had the cheek to charge £20 for this service! Tantalisingly, the fragment recorded as stone 28 appears to be part of a lairstone of similar design (and, presumably, age) to Sir Gilbert’s. Burial records exist for the Snow Kirk from 1776 to 1902. Maddeningly, there appears to have been no sort of “lair plan”, burial places being described as “at the south dyke, at the head of Miss Rankin’s grave” or “between Pitfoddles stone and Mr Massie’s”. But there do not appear to be any references to named stones other than those which can still be identified. There are some grounds to suppose that stone no. 9 may formerly have lain between stones 17 and 19 – certainly it is hard to reconcile the various references to “Captain George’s stone”. Stone no. 15 was described by A Strath Maxwell as “badly defaced” and the later anonymous surveyor could still read much of it, but it now consists only of a pile of fragments. The site was mapped and the stones re-read in Spring 2009.