St. Ninian’s Roman Catholic Church

St. Ninian’s Roman Catholic Church

While writing the 10-part blog series based on the book Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch, there was reference to a church on the Fetternear Estate in Aberdeenshire. Further research revealed that there is a church ruin, St. Ninian’s Roman Catholic Church, located there. The church ruins are not well known and when visiting Fetternear Estate in July 2024, it was completely overlooked as a site of importance.

Archaeology Notes found online at https://canmore.org.uk/site/18686/fetternear-old-parish-church-of-st-ninian shows the location to be near the River Don. The church site dates back to 1150, perhaps 1109 by a charter from Malcom IV dated 1160. In 1848 a new chapel was built, however, the chapel was never dedicated. Instead, it appears it was a family mausoleum.

Of importance is the report in Find a Grave that this is the resting place of Col. Charles Joseph Leslie, author of the three-volume Historical Records of the Family Leslie  from 1067 to 1868-69. He died in Jan 10, 1870 at age 70. The Leslie Heritage Tour will be visiting Fetternear Place and hopefully a visit to the chapel to pay homage to Colonel Leslie and his work in documenting the Leslie history.

The Leslie Global Diaspora Foundation is very interested in doing additional research on this site and exploring what measures may be needed to preserve this site. A photo of the church ruins is included in the Foundation’s recently published book The Legacy of the Leslies: A compilation of photos.

Additional Information of the Bishop’s Palace at Fetternear is available here: https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/master/detail.aspx?refno=NJ71NW0007