The north doorway is simple, having a plain round arch with a splay on edge, and a recess for a bolt in the ingoing.
The church contains a simple piscina in the south wall, and a very elaborate ambry, or sacrament house ([Fig. 705]), in the north wall near the east end. The decorated adjuncts of this ambry are about 6 feet in height. The opening is moulded, and has a quasi buttress on each side, crowned with a crocketed pinnacle in a late style of art. A pointed roof, or flat canopy, rises over the ambry, having on the top a representation of the crucifixion, with a skull carved at the base; over the cross is a scroll bearing the letters I N R I. There are two scrolls on the roof, carved with the inscription, HIC·Ē CORP DUĒ C V M, and on the sill of the ambry, M·A·S·, which inscription Mr. Jervise renders thus: “Here is the body of our Lord, with Mary, the Apostles, and Saints.” The ambry has an inner recess on the left side.
This work is evidently very late in style, but it can scarcely be so late as Mr. Jervise supposes. He says:—“I am inclined to ascribe the erection of the Sacrament House, if not the Kirk, of Auchindoir to the laird and lady whose arms and initials are upon shields within it. One of these shields, dated 1557, bears the Gordon arms and motto, HOIP IN
Fig. 705.—Auchindoir Church. Sacrament House.
GOD; the second, initialed V·G:C·C·, presents the arms of Gordon and Cheyne, impaled with the motto, GRACE ME GYID.”
There can be no doubt that Mr. Jervise is in error as to the church being erected in 1557; but it was probably altered at that date, as the eastern or priests’ doorway in the south wall (which is now square headed, and has a transome and upper light over it) bears the date 1557. That was probably the time when the church was altered for Presbyterian worship. The sculptured ambry was probably executed in the early part of the sixteenth century, before the Reformation.
In 1513-14 the Church of Auchindoir was erected into a prebend of King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen. That would be a likely time for the introduction of the sacrament house. The building continued to be employed for divine service till 1810, when a new church was erected in the neighbourhood. The old churchyard which surrounds the old church is still used for interment.