Fig. 702.—Auchindoir Church. View from South-East.
The ruined church of Auchindoir is situated in a remote part of Upper Aberdeenshire, about six miles south-west from Kennethmont Station, between Insch and Huntly. It stands on a slight elevation near the mouth of the Craig Burn, which joins the river Bogie a short
Fig. 703.—Auchindoir Church. South Doorway.
distance below. It has been pointed out by Mr. Jervise[107] that the orientation of the church is peculiar, as it stands more north and south than east and west; but in the following description the usual orientation is assumed. The church is a simple oblong ([Fig. 701]), measuring 50 feet in length by 19 feet 6 inches in width internally. Mr. Jervise thinks it has been added to at the west end, and it has at least been altered at that point, and a belfry added on the top of the gable ([Fig. 702]). The rest of the building has also been considerably altered, and a doorway inserted in the east end and square windows introduced to make it suitable for Presbyterian worship.
Towards the west end there are two doorways, opposite one another, in the north and south walls. That in the south wall ([Fig. 703]) is a fine specimen of early first pointed work. The round arch is retained (as is common in Scotland), but the details are all of first pointed design. The section of the jamb and arch mouldings ([Fig. 704]) and the dog-tooth enrichment of the label are clear indications of that style. Mr. Jervise doubts whether these features are genuine, and suspects that they are late imitations of the first pointed style; but Mr. Muir has no doubt about the doorway being of “late transition work, belonging, apparently, to that precise period in the progress of the art when the already softened features of the Normans were beginning to merge altogether into the still more flexible and varied forms of the first pointed style.” This opinion is confirmed by all the features of the doorway. The bold foliaged caps on each side (of which the detached shafts are gone) are undoubted proofs of the genuine nature of the work. This doorway could never have been produced in later times.
Fig. 704.—Auchindoir Church.
South Doorway: Jamb and Arch Moulding.