Fig. 1443.—Auchterarder Church. View from South-West.
visible except a piscina (Fig. [1442]) in the usual place in the south wall near the east end, which part of the building is walled off as a tomb house. The piscina is triangular headed, somewhat like the one in the choir of Paisley Abbey. It is only visible through a chink in the door of the tomb. There has been some kind of projection in the south wall near the centre, but owing to vegetation and rubbish (Fig. [1443]) it cannot be properly examined, nor for the same reason can anything be made out regarding any openings in the south wall. Both of the side walls are considerably ruined. There is a slightly projecting splayed base at the east wall, with the usual set-off just below the gable.
The edifice was dedicated to St. Mechessock, and in 1198 the church of Auchterarder was given by Gilbert, third Earl of Strathearn, to the Abbey of Inchaffray, but the existing ruin belongs to a much later age.
A well at a short distance south from the church still bears “St. M‘Kessog’s” name, and on his day (10th March) the principal fair of the town is held.[198] The church was served by a parochial curate appointed by the Abbot of Inchaffray.
CAMBUSMICHAEL CHURCH, Perthshire.
Finely situated on one of the most beautiful reaches of the Tay, a little below the Linn of Camsie and opposite the village of Stanley, this ruined church, with its churchyard, occupies the end of a plateau which slopes suddenly down to the river on the north side, and to a deep
Fig. 1444.—Cambusmichael Church. Plan.