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Restenneth Priory / Forfar Parish Church
- Dedication: St Peter
- Diocese of St Andrews
- Deanery of Angus
- NO 48222 51600
Summary description
The medieval parish was accommodated in the nave of the Augustinian priory church, but relocated to the choir for a period after the Reformation. The earliest work is the probably eleventh-century base of the tower, which is of various dates in its upper levels. The shell of the thirteenth-century choir is largely complete, but the nave is reduced to its lowest courses. A new parish church was built in Forfar, possibly at the end of the sixteenth century.
Historical outline
Dedication: St Peter
There has been considerable debate as to the origins of the church of Restenneth, with the suggestion that it may be the site of the stone church dedicated to St Peter built for Nechtan, king of the Picts in 710 continuing to be advanced.(1) More recent discussion of Nechtan’s activities cautiously avoids naming a location,(2) but the presence of a property known as ‘Egglespeder’ (Church of Peter) amongst the lands used in the twelfth century as an endowment for the Augustinian priory is strongly suggestive of a connection. It is unknown, however, what the status was of the church of Restenneth to the lighting of which David I granted 20/- yearly from the burgh ferme of Montrose, plus a teind of the burgh ferme,(3) but it was clearly a functioning ecclesiastical establishment of something more than simple parochial status. David is also said to have granted ‘the rents of certain thanages, bondagia, and other royal lands’ to Restenneth; the document recording this grant – or possibly a fourteenth-century testament to its general tenor - was seen by Andrew Jervise in the mid nineteenth century amongst papers preserved at Aldbar Castle, but this appears now to be lost.(4) While there is no suggestion that this was a céli Dé community, it seems likely that Restenneth housed a community of clergy and had attracted the gifts of royalty and local kindreds alike prior to David’s reign. Jervise’s contention that David’s gifts had been to a prior and canons, however, repeated by David Easson in 1957, appears to be in error, for the surviving record is of gifts simply to the church of Restenneth.(5) David may have entertained plans to found a monastery there, but it was only in the reign of his grandson and successor, Malcolm IV, that any such design was made a reality.
David’s plans for the church had not come to fruition before his death in 1153 and it was his grandson and successor, Malcolm IV, who carried them forward. Probably in 1161, Malcolm granted the church of St Peter of Restenneth, and everything granted by his predecessors to that church, to the canons of Jedburgh.(6) The stipulation was that Abbot Osbert and his convent wereto place a prior and convent of their fellows in Restenneth ‘according to its capacity’. Shortly thereafter Restenneth was established as a priory-cell of the mother-house at Jedburgh, with the parsonage and vicarage of the church appropriated to the new community from the outset.
It would appear that the parishioners were served by an altar located in their former parish church that had been appropriated for the uses of the canons, probably located by the thirteenth century in the nave of the enlarged monastic church. It was a large and wealthy parish which included the royal castle and burgh of Forfar within its territories. Despite the importance of the burgh, it was served only by a parochial chapel of Restenneth and the townsfolk were still obliged to attend their mother church on major feast days and special occasions. The chapel at Forfar – described misleadingly as a church – was dedicated by Bishop David de Bernham 23 August 1242,(7) probably at around the time that Jedburgh’s possession of Restenneth and rights over its parish were confirmed.(8) The church of Restenneth itself was rededicated by Bishop David on 30 August 1243.(9)
Few other records of Restenneth as a parish as opposed to priory church survive. As a fully appropriated possession of the priory, its revenues were subsumed for taxation purposes into the totals for the priory and its mother-house at Jedburgh. Accordingly, it does not feature in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland in the 1270s. It is only in the last three decades of the fifteenth century that the parish church, or rather its revenues, reappears in surviving records when in 1470 the whole parsonage and vicarage fruits were assigned as part of the pension of the former prior, James Dunmain or Dunmaining, who had been ‘unjustly’ deprived of his office by Patrick Graham, bishop of St Andrews.(10) Dunmain’s possession was short-lived and in 1476 the parish revenues were re-annexed to Jedburgh, ostensibly on account of the costs of making good war-damage to the abbey and its property.(11)
In 1508 King James IV attempted to have the fruits of Restenneth parish church united to the enlarged chapel royal at Stirling.(12) Although the pope granted the king’s supplication, in 1509 the union with the chapel royal was revoked.(13) The church thereafter remained as an annexed possession of the abbey of Jedburgh and its daughter-house of Restenneth. At the Reformation it was recorded that both parsonage and vicarage revenues were held by Jedburgh but assigned to its priory-cell at Restenneth, and were valued at £46 plus produce annually.(14) There is no mention of curates or vicars pensioner and it seems likely that throughout the pre-Reformation period both the parochial cure of Restenneth and its chapel at Forfar were served by canons from the priory.
Notes
1. I B Cowan and D E Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland, 2nd edition (London, 1976), 53.
2. J E Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (Edinburgh, 2009), 276-7.
3. The Charters of David I, ed G W S Barrow (Woodbridge, 1999), no.250; Regesta Regum Scottorum, i, The Acts of Malcolm IV, ed G W S Barrow (Edinburgh, 1960), no.78 [hereafter RRS, i].
4. David I Charters, 168; A Jervise, Memorials of Angus and the Mearns (Edinburgh, 1861), 412 note b. This may be the testament of Patrick Leuchars, bishop of Brechin, noted in HMC, 14th Report, appendix, Pt III, Report on the Ancient Charters in the Possession of the Right honourable Claud Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorn (London, 1894), 187-8.
5. D E Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland (London, 1957), 81.
7. A O Anderson (ed). Early Sources of Scottish History, ii (Edinburgh, 1922), 522 [Pontifical Offices of St Andrews].
8. Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia (Bannatyne Club, 1841), xxviii.
9. Anderson (ed), Early Sources, ii, 524.
10. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, v, 1447-1471, eds J Kirk, R J Tanner and A I Dunlop (Glasgow, 1997), no.1462.
11. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, xiv, 1484-1492, ed J A Twemlow (London, 1960), 507.
12. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, xvi, pt 2, ed A P Fuller (Dublin, 1986), no.916.
13. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, xix, 1503-1513, ed M J Haren (Dublin, 1998), no.161.
14. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 217.
Summary of relevant documentation
Medieval
Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: The priory and church were granted to Jedburgh by Malcolm IV. Both the parsonage and vicarage fruits continued to be held by the priory. A settlement in 1242 saw both church and chapel served by canons, although a vicar portioner seems to have served the mother church at the Reformation.(1)
1470 Pension for invalid former abbot James Dunmain (c.1464-1470) taken from the teinds of Restenneth parish church.(2)
1476 Church appropriated to the abbot and mensa of Jedburgh because of the damage done by wars to that house (value £40 sterling).(3)
1508 Fruits of Restenneth parish church united to the chapel royal at Stirling.(4) 1509 union with chapel royal revoked.(5)
Post-medieval
Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church parsonage and vicarage with Jedburgh, given to its cell Restenneth, cash value £46 + produce.(6)
1726 (15 Feb) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Forfar [assuming that this chruch becomes the parish church of Forfar). Report from workmen recommends (re) building the gavel wall of the south aisle (£26); roof and choir also need considerable repairs. Total cost, including new kirk yard dykes, £862 11s 6d.(7)
Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev John Bruce, 1793): ‘The church, situated near the centre of town (Forfar), has been rebuilt within these few years (1791)… The fabric is elegant and commodious, but disgraced by the contiguity of the old steeple and spire’.(8)
New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev W Clugston, 1843): ‘The church of the old parish is situated in the town of Forfar. It was built in 1791… The steeple was erected in 1814.(9) [No reference to the old steeple or spire]
Notes
1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 171.
6. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 217.
7. NRS Presbytery of Forfar, Minutes, 1717-1727, CH2/159/2, fols. 185-189.
8. Statistical Account of Scotland, (1793), vi, 523.
9. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1843), xi, 701.
Bibliography
NRS Presbytery of Forfar, Minutes, 1717-1727, CH2/159/2.
Calendar of entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland; Papal letters, 1893-, ed. W.H. Bliss, London.
Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1447-71, 1997, ed. J. Kirk, R.J. Tanner and A.I. Dunlop, Edinburgh.
Cowan, I.B., 1967, The parishes of medieval Scotland, (Scottish Record Society), Edinburgh.
Kirk, J., 1995, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, (British Academy) Oxford.
New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834-45, Edinburgh and London.
Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-9, ed. J. Sinclair, Edinburgh.
Architectural description
The cure of souls in the parish of Restenneth was conducted in a small Augustinian priory that had itself perhaps been first planned by David I, and which was granted to Jedburgh Abbey by Malcolm IV in 1161/2.(1) The priory was almost entirely surrounded by the water of Restenneth Loch until it was drained by George Dempster, the owner of the estate, in the late eighteenth century, in order to use the marl in the loch bed as fertiliser.(2)
The date of the earliest part of the church at Restenneth has been hotly contested. In about 710 Bede says that Nechtan, or Naitan, the king of the Picts, sent to Abbot Ceolfrith of Jarrow for advice on how to build in stone after the Roman manner,(3) as part of an attempt to introduce Northumbrian religious practices into his kingdom. It has been argued by some writers that the architectural result of that advice was the lowest storey of the tower at Restenneth.(4)
Few would now consider that part to be earlier than the eleventh century,(5) and any church that Nechtan built is perhaps more likely to have been elsewhere. Nevertheless, on surviving evidence it does appear that the earliest work at the church is the lowest stage of the tower, which was incorporated at the junction of the choir and nave of the later church. It is built of pink and buff coursed rubble and is approximately 4.75 metres square in plan. The principal diagnostic features are a doorway through its south wall and an arch in its east wall.
The doorway is framed by a strip-work band that runs around its jambs and an arch that is cut into a block lintel. The closest Scottish parallel for this design is the doorway at the base of the round tower at Abernethy. That doorway appears to be part of a second phase of work that may eventually have been completed in the early twelfth century on the evidence of the belfry windows, but that was perhaps started in the later eleventh century.
The arch through the east wall of Restenneth’s tower has jambs and arch of rectangular profile, which are separated by imposts with a quirked cavetto moulding. Those details would be consistent with the date of not before the later eleventh century that has already been indicated for the south door.
On the evidence of scarring at the north-east angle of the tower, it can be seen that it was attached to a wider eastern chamber, and it may be suspected that chamber projected as far to the north of the tower as the present choir does to its south. There may be parallels for the plan that this suggests in the church that was found through excavation below the nave of Dunfermline Abbey in 1916.(6) The earliest phase of works there was found to have consisted of a square thick-walled western part, and a narrower but longer eastern part; the western part was perhaps a small nave rising into a tower, with a choir to its east.
Abernethy’s tower was subsequently heightened by two storeys, possibly in the earlier twelfth century. Those upper storeys are faced with large blocks of yellow ashlar, and are separated by a string course with a bottom chamfer. At the lower storey the windows are simple rectangular apertures, except in the west face, where the opening is circular. At the upper level the windows are most unusual in having triangular heads and in being framed by a raised margin. There are partial analogies for such triangular windows in the nave gallery at Dunfermline Abbey, which provides some support for a twelfth-century date for the upper parts of Restenneth tower.
It may have been at the end of that century that an arch was cut through the west wall of the tower to give access to a nave that was presumably the part of the church in which parochial worship took place. That arch has jambs and arch of rectangular profile, and imposts with a bottom chamfer. It is clearly secondary to the wall through which is it cut; this is particularly evident on the north side, where the lower part of the arch is formed from horizontally coursed masonry, and the impost is set in a slot cut into a pre-existing block.
In its final form the church was composed of two unaisled rectangular compartments, with a sacristy on the north side of the choir. The east-west axis of the choir was slightly to the south of that of the nave. The tower was incorporated into the church on the south side of the junction of nave and choir.
In the present ruined state of the church this results in a curiously lop-sided appearance, and the roof crease on the west side of the tower makes clear that it would always have given an asymmetrical appearance to the finished church when viewed from the exterior. From the interior, however, the part of the tower within the church would presumably have been embodied within some form of pulpitum.
If that it is the case, it should perhaps be assumed that the gap to the north of the tower would have been framed so as to correspond to the arches at the base of the tower, resulting in a pair of passages running from west to east from nave to choir. There may have been a stair on the north side, giving access to a rood loft, on the indications of a blocked slit window and the sill of an elevated window, to the east of the buttressing at the junction of nave and choir.
The nave survives only as excavated footings. At the centre of the west front are the lowest courses of the doorway; this has had an inner order with a quirked roll moulding that is likely to have continued unbroken around the opening, and an outer order with the base for an en-délit nook shaft on each side. Such details point to the years around 1200 for the nave.
A base course consisting of two tiers of broad chamfers survives along part of the nave; this base course also extends part of the way down the north wall of the choir, indicating that this part of the choir was set out at the same time as the nave. However, there seems to have been a pause before work on the choir was resumed, because for most of their length, the choir walls rise from a double chamfered base course of slightly different profile, with a course of ashlar between the two chamfers.
By contrast with the fragmentary remains of the nave, the choir stands almost complete to the wall head, albeit with part of the north wall having been rebuilt where the sacristy was removed. This is a result of its being retained in use after the Reformation, initially as a parish church and later as a burial enclosure.
The walls were articulated into narrow bays by small buttresses, most of which have been robbed for their dressed quoins, and there were clasping buttresses at the eastern angles. Each bay down the flanks that was not abutted by the east conventual range or the sacristy had a single lancet window. Externally these windows have broadly chamfered reveals, and there is a string course at window-head level, which is diverted around the arches as a hood mould. The east wall was given greater emphasis by a triplet of taller windows which rest on a string course. Along the south wall a number of corbels survive from a wall-head corbel table.
At the west end of the south wall is the roof moulding for the east conventual range. On the tower, however, there is evidence for two levels of roof, indicating that the roof of the range has either been heightened or lowered at some stage. There are also slight traces of the night stair door, though this is more clearly seen from inside the choir. However, it appears from the continuity of the base course, that the south wall of the choir might predate the east range, and that both phases of roof could therefore represent later adaptations, though this evidence must be interpreted with caution, since there is evidence of considerable rebuilding in this part of the south choir wall.
Internally the window rear arches are broadly splayed and rebated for glazing frames; as along the exterior, there is a string course that rises around the window heads as a hood mould. The triplet of east windows evidently had rear arches carried on en délit shafts. Those at the outer ends were carried on elbow corbels and had shaft rings at mid-length. At the west end of the south wall is the slightly elevated blocked doorway that presumably led to the night stair, and that has been mentioned in discussing the exterior.
All of these details point to a date for the completion of the choir in the earlier thirteenth century. On that basis, a dedication by Bishop David de Bernham on 30 August 1243,(7) might conceivably mark completion of construction of the choir, though the greatest caution must always be applied in relating Bernham’s dedications to building operations.
On the south side of the presbytery area are a piscina, sedilia and an aumbry. The former has a two-centred arch over the basin, with nodules at the arch apex and at mid-height of the arch. The sedilia consist of a single wide segmental arch with a broadly chamfer arris. The aumbry is rectangular with a rebate for a frame around its perimeter.
The bowl of the baptismal font that is thought to be from the priory is now in the Episcopal Church in Forfar. It appears to be unfinished, but is octagonal with a pair of incised round arches to each face and a cable moulding round the base of the bowl.(8)
Within the choir are a number of tombs and memorials of both late medieval and post-Reformation date. The two medieval memorials are set within the south wall of the choir, to the west of the aumbry, and towards the west end of the north wall. They are framed by carefully cut mouldings in the form of a roll flanked by hollows.
The latest part of the church to have been built appears to be the spire. This is of splay-foot form, rising directly from the tower wall-head, and there are gableted lucernes at the base on all four sides.
Parochial use of the church may have continued for some time after the Reformation, and it is not clear when the parish was relocated to Forfar, though it has been suggested it was in 1591.(9) Following its abandonment for worship the choir was adapted for use as a burial enclosure by the Dempster and Hunter families, a process that evidently involved walling up of windows and doorways. The nave, sacristy and conventual buildings were progressively demolished, apart from the walls towards the cloister of the west and south ranges.
Repairs to the choir were carried out in 1863-66. In 1919 the site was placed in state care, following which some clearance excavations were carried out to allow the site to be presented to visitors more effectively, and the masonry was consoliated.(10)
Notes
1. Ian B.Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 171; Ian B. Cowan and David E. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses, Scotland, 2nd ed., London and New York, 1976, pp. 95-96.
2. Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-9, vol. 6, p. 529.
3. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, ed. David Knowles, London and New York, 1910, pp. 264-76.
4. A.F. Forbes, ‘The Architecture of the Priory of Restennet...in a letter to Mr Stuart’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 7, 1866-8, p. 387; J. Stuart, ‘On the Early History of the Priory of Restennet’, Archaeologia Scotica, vol. 5, 1880, pp. 285-316; W. Douglas Simpson, ‘The Early Romanesque Tower at Restenneth Priory’, Antiquaries Journal, vol. 43, 1963, pp. 269-83
5. Eric C. Fernie, ‘Early Church Architecture in Scotland’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 116, 1986, pp. 393-411.
6. Eric C. Fernie, ‘The Romanesque Churches of Dunfermline Abbey’, in John Higgitt, ed., Medieval Art and Architecture in the Diocese of St Andrews, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, XIV, Leeds, 1994, pp. 25-37, figs 6, 7; Richard Fawcett, ‘Dunfermline Abbey Church’ in Richard Fawcett, ed., Royal Dunfermline, Edinburgh, 2005, pp. 27-63, figs 2.6, 2.7, 2.8.
7. Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1922, vol. 2, p. 524.
8. J. Russell Walker, ‘Scottish Baptismal Fonts’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 21, 1886-7, p. 411.
9. Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-9, vol. 6, p. 529; Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, vol. 6, 1855.
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