Bourtie Kirk's final service will commemorate 825 years of Christian Witness
The congregation of Bourtie Kirk near Oldmeldrum in Aberdeenshire will see the church hold its final service on Sunday, December 10.
Commemorating 825 years of Christian Witness, the service of Lessons and Carols led by Rev Alisa McDonald takes place at 2.30pm followed by a gathering at The Barn at Barra commemorating Bourtie Kirk which is the latest to close its doors across the north-east in a rationalisation of church properties which is still ongoing.
Bourtie Kirk nestles in a hollow, off the beaten track, 600 feet above sea level near the Hill of Barra.
It is on a site of over 800 years continuous worship from its earlist recorded endowment to the Priory of St. Andrews by a Norman landlord.
The early church here was given 'before 1199' by William de Lamberton to the See, along with 'manse, curtillage and pertinents which Hugh the Rector used to live'.
It is known that Hugh had preached in a sod-rubble church here sometime after 1170 and there is evidence of an even earlier place of worship on the site.
When the Culdee monks were preaching at Monymusk, there was also a Celtic cell here converting the local people from previous pagan worship indicated by the presence of a Pictish symbol stone (with crescent V-rod, double-disc Z-rod, mirror and comb) built high into the south wall of the kirk when it was rebuilt in 1806. Also an early Christian cross-stone is incorporated into the south boundary-wall of the kirkyard near the sundial.
When Catholicism was replaced by Episcopalian worship, Bourtie was linked with neighbouring Bethelnie throughout the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. When this, in turn, was 'reformed' with the new Protestant faith, readers were shared by the two parishes until enough men had been ordained to serve a parish each. This frequently meant riding on horseback over the old road between Kirkton of Bourtie and Redhouse, through the Cowgate, and over the Paircock hill by the old highway to Bethelnie, a four mile journey, but now six on modern roads.
Between 1666 and 1709, two Episcopalians again served the parish.
They were Robert Browne, A.M. who gave the kirk its precious relic, a collection ladle or 'brod' dated 1871, and Alexander Sharpe who had its first bell cast in 1690. A wooden pewpanel mounted inside the kirk on the cast wall is inscribed 'RS 1669' and dates from the time
Internally the 18th Century triple-decker pulpit formed part of the fitting of the pre-Reformation kirk which, along with a pew panel, a collection ladle or 1671 and two Georgian ladles, were in the building in 1806-7. An early Class I Pictish symbol stone (c. 6th Century AD) is built into the second course of masonry on the outer south wall, and an early Christian cross-incised stone was used as a coping stone of the kirkyard wall when it was consolidated in 1806.
On the July 9, 1995 a service of dedication was held to celebrate 800 years of Christian worship on the site of Bourtie Kirk, attended by representatives of the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian denominations of the Northeast of Scotland and officiated by the Moderator of the General Assembly.
