St Ninian’s Church (ruins), Fetternear, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire
Visited August 2017
This site, in woodland near the ruins of the Bishops Palace, is a curious one. Apparently there’s been a church dedicated to St Ninian here since c. 1150, and a new chapel was then built in 1848. The present building, dating from 1878, stands over the foundations of the earlier buildings and their burials (including family tombs of the Leslie family, and at least one bishop), but due to a falling out between the landowning family and the Catholic Church it was never consecrated.
There’s a small graveyard around the ruin, which is now out of use. Most of the graves date to the 19th century, although there may be older ones lurk8ng in the undergrowth. The remains of the burials within the building aren’t visible, although a bit more poking around might have brought forth a few traces.
In winter the site might be more accessible, but in summer in was surrounded by bracken to be waded through, watching out for fallen walls, rabbit holes and ticks! Although the area is popular with dog walkers, they didn’t stray from the paths to come to this place, and there wasn’t much evidence anyone ever did...
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