Duthil

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Duthil
Gaelic: Daothal
Morayshire, Inverness-shire

Duthil Old Parish Church and Churchyard
Location
Grid reference: NH935241
Location: 57°17’44"N, 3°46’3"W
Data
Post town: Carrbridge
Postcode: PH23
Local Government
Council: Highland

Duthil is a small village and ancient parish in Morayshire detached in Inverness-shire. It is bypassed from the A938 road, at the junction with the B9007, near Carrbridge. Along with Rothiemurchus in Inverness-shire proper it forms the civil parish of Duthil and Rothiemurchus.

Just outside the village lies Duthil Old Parish Church and Burial Ground, which includes many memorials to members of Clan Grant and two mausolea of the Earls of Seafield.

Old Parish Church

The first recorded church at Duthil, dedicated to St Peter, was built about 1400, probably on the site of an earlier building. The church has been rebuilt on several occasions. The New Statistical Account reports the pre-Reformation building was 'taken down in 1826' and a new, 'excellent edifice' built the same year.[1] Plans held by the National Records of Scotland show the 19th-century interior was focussed on a raised pulpit on the long south wall. Three galleries, off both the east and west walls, and off the north wall, sloped down towards the pulpit, and the ground floor seating was also arranged facing the pulpit and to each side.[2] At the same time the Seafield burial vault under the previous church was replaced by the self-standing first Mausoleum.[3]The church was again renovated just before World War I by the Glasgow architect Peter MacGregor Chalmers,[4] when the intention was to provide space for an organ and choir. [5] Old Duthil Church closed for services in 1967.[6]

When the building was closed and sold, its pulpit and Communion table and chair were removed and reinstalled in the former Carrbridge United Free Church, as of 2017 still used for worship by the Church of Scotland congregation. Additionally, a number of memorial plaques were removed from the walls and rehung in the Vestry of the Carrbridge Church, where they remain: these include one to Field Marshal Sir Patrick Grant. [7]

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Duthil)
  1. 'The New Statistical Account of Scotland' vol.13, 'County of Elgin', pub. William Blackwood & Sons Edinburgh 1834-45, p.121: article 'The Parish of Duthil' by Rev. William Grant .
  2. National Records of Scotland, RHP8580.
  3. Bardgett, Frank D. (2017). By the Dulnain and the Spey: The Victorian Saga of James Bain of Duthil. Dundee: Itelsor Ltd. p. 15. 
  4. http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200244
  5. Bardgett, Frank D. (2017). By the Dulnain and the Spey: The Victorian Saga of James Bain of Duthil. Dundee: Itelsor Ltd. p. 242. 
  6. Carrbridge History: Old Parish Church - Duthil, accessed 10 December 2015
  7. Pamphlet, ‘The Church of Scotland Parish of Duthil’ produced for the centenary of the Carrbridge Church in 2009; and see (accessed April 2017): http://www.carrbridge.com/index.php/Info/History/

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