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St Cyrus Old Parish Church is a medieval parish church located in Kincardineshire, Scotland, and protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland. The church stands on bedrock formed during the Devonian period, comprising mafic lava and mafic tuff that created the hard, dark igneous foundation upon which the structure was built. This geological base reflects the dramatic volcanic activity that shaped the landscape of north-east Scotland hundreds of millions of years before the medieval settlement developed here.
The church served as the principal place of worship for the parish of St Cyrus during the medieval period, functioning as the spiritual and administrative centre of its community. Its survival as a recognisable structure, though now ruinous, provides evidence of the scale and permanence of religious buildings in rural Kincardineshire during the Middle Ages. The solid volcanic bedrock would have offered stable foundations essential for constructing a substantial stone building.
St Cyrus Old Parish Church remains an important monument to medieval parish life in eastern Scotland. Its protected status reflects its archaeological and historical significance as a record of medieval settlement patterns, religious organisation, and the longstanding importance of this site to the local community. The monument contributes to our understanding of how the Church structured spiritual life across the rural Mearns region.
St Cyrus, Old Parish Church is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM9743. View the official record →
St Cyrus Old Parish Church is a medieval parish church located in Kincardineshire, Scotland, and protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM9743.
St Cyrus, Old Parish Church dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a old parish church. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
St Cyrus, Old Parish Church is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM9743.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Kaim of Mathers Castle (1.3 km), Fisherhills,barrow cemetery (3.4 km), Fisherhills,fort 150m WNW of (3.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of St Cyrus, Old Parish Church's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
St Cyrus, Old Parish Church stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Silurian To Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Devonian. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.