ST. ADAMNAN’S CHAPEL, Aberdeenshire.

A small chapel situated near Leask, some two or three miles inland from the old Castle of Slains. It is surrounded by what appears to have been a churchyard, but is now covered with stunted trees. The chapel (Fig. 1321) is filled with its own ruins and is utterly uncared for. The walls are fairly entire for a height of about 7 feet, while the east gable is nearly complete, and contains a pointed window about 7 feet wide, which was probably filled with tracery. The outside jambs are gone, but the inner splayed face of the arch is still entire. In the east wall are the remains of what may have been a piscina, and there is an ambry in the south wall adjoining. There are a window in the south wall and two openings of some kind in the north, with a narrow window high up in the west gable. The doorway is on the south side, but its jambs are gone, and only the bar hole remains to indicate that it was the doorway. The church measures, externally, 45 feet from east to west by 23 feet 3 inches from north to south.

Not much is recorded about this chapel. In the View of the Diocese of Aberdeen[149] it is referred to as the Parish Church of Fervie, “dedicated to St. Fidamnan, Abbot of Icolmkill.”

From the charters preserved at Slains, we learn that “a letter of manrent by the Lard of Essilmont is dated ‘at the Chapell of Laske’ on

Fig. 1321.—St. Adamnan’s Chapel. Plan and Interior View, looking East.

the 11th of September 1499.”[150] Probably the church was erected during the foregoing century.