Contin Parish Church: Archaeological survey aims to unravel secrets

Having taken offence at the treatment of one of their own at the hands of the son of the Chief of the Mackenzie clan, the attackers stormed towards the kirk and blocked its exits. With the screaming villagers trapped inside, they lit torches and burned it - and them - to the ground.

The brutal 15th century massacre at Contin’s kirk in Ross-shire was just one of several bloodthirsty attacks to take place at a site so steeped in religious history that it has been dubbed ‘the holy isle of the north’.

Yet while its roots stretch to the 8th century when it was built by Irish Christian monk St. Maelrubha, founder of a monastery at Applecross which he made his base for almost six decades, much remains unknown about the successive churches that have stood there and the land around it.

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Now it’s hoped that might change, with an archaeological survey that aims to identify medieval and pre-medieval remains in the fields surrounding Contin Parish Church.

Next week’s geophysical survey by specialists ORCA Archaeology will scan the area overlooked by today’s austere grey harled box-like kirk, which still retains elements of the 15th century church attacked by the MacDonald clan.

Organised by the local community as part of their Contin’s Hidden History project, the work will include a magnetometer survey – which helps identify burnt remains and midden sites. There will also be a targeted Earth Resistance survey, intended to help pinpoint the locations of buried structures.

It’s hoped the three-day survey might provide evidence of ancient building foundations and signs of past settlements, potentially kickstarting further archaeological explorations that might just unravel more of the kirk’s long history.

“There has been very little archaeological work done at Contin, so it’s quite exciting to be doing this now,” says Phil Baarda, of the local community council, and who two years ago almost by chance discovered two pre-medieval carved stones in the kirkyard.

A pre-medieval stone found in the kirkyard (Image: Phil Baarda)

“I’m pretty convinced we will find something.

“This is a fascinating place, but its history has been fairly neglected over the years with other sites seeming to take precedence.

“Yet the signs are that this must have been a well-known centre for many centuries.”

In the area is Bronze Age Contin Henge, also known as Achilty Henge, and the remains of a chambered cairn which sits within the mausoleum of the Mackenzie of Coul family.

Known as Preas Mairi, which means ‘the thicket of Maelrubha’ and now overgrown, the monk’s body is said to have been taken there after he was ambushed and killed by robbers at Urquhart on the Black Isle, before being transported to his monastery at Applecross for burial.

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Originally from Bangour, County Down, and a descendant of Niall, King of Ireland, he had arrived in Scotland with a group of fellow monks in 671, part of a second wave of missionaries that followed in the footsteps of St Columba.

The monk, who gave his name to Loch Maree, made his base within the Pictish territory of Aporcrosan – Applecross – in 673, founding the monastery and establishing at least 22 churches during travels which spanned Skye, Lewis and east to Forres and Keith.

Both his voyage to Scotland and the foundation of the monastery are recorded in Irish annals, suggesting his mission was considered particularly significant in the spreading of Christianity and Gaelic culture among norther Scottish Picts.

While his influence led to a wealth of customs and traditions being established in his name, some of which lasted for centuries after his death.

According to research published by Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society, minutes of the Presbytery of Dingwall recorded in 1656, showed the people of Contin still sacrificed bulls to celebrate the saint on his feast day, August 25.

Contin Parish Church (Image: HES)

The sacrificial meat was given to “the mentally deranged” known as St Mourie’s afflicted ones.

It adds that 22 years later, further sacrifices were made in the hope of aiding an ailing woman, while at the start of the 19th century, a fair day in his honour, Feill Moire, held in the area involved “several days of drinking and fighting”, leading to the local Laird, Sir George Mackenzie of Coul, ordering the festivities to be moved instead to Dingwall.

The kirk at Contin sits on an island in the Blackwater (Abhainn Dubh), where its burial ground would have been secure from the attention of wild animals. It is reached from the rest of the village by a foot bridge and a road bridge.

Down the years it has witnessed a string of violent events: an invasion by either Danes or inhabitants of the Western Isle on the saint’s feast day in the 9th century saw the congregation of around 100 men and women being slaughtered.

When word spread, the men of Ross gathered to wreak revenge leaving just 30 of the 500 invaders alive.

The grim slaughter of women and children by the MacDonald clansmen in 1477 came after Kenneth of Kinellen, son of the clan chief of the Mackenzies and married to a MacDonald woman, fell out with his in-laws.

The row prompted him to send his wife, who had one eye, back to her family accompanied by a one-eyed servant, riding a one-eyed horse and with a one-eyed dog – inflaming the dispute between the families.

The kirk was also at the centre of an 18th century religious squabble when its last Episcopalian minister refused to convert to Presbyterianism.

Having already been accused of assisting in the Jacobite rising of 1715, Aeneas Morrison – known as ‘Black Angus’ - was preaching when an attempt was made to oust him from the pulpit.

As he was dragged down the aisle, he pronounced a curse on the men involved as the church bell suddenly rang out of its own accord and promptly cracked from top to bottom.

Next week’s archaeological survey will focus on two fields bordering the church which it’s thought have never been ploughed – raising hopes that they may harbour fascinating detail just under the surface.

The findings of the survey, which is part of Highland Archaeology Festival, will be shared with villagers in early October and is part of a wider community project funded by Historic Environment Scotland and EDF Renewables Corriemoillie Wind Farm Community Fund.