Worship times

Pluscarden 10.00am
Birnie 11.30am
Evening Services 6.30pm September - June
1st Sunday of the month Birnie
3rd Sunday of the month Pluscarden

Contact

Minister:
VACANT

Interim Moderator:
Rev John Macgregor
Manse of Dyke, Brodie
Forres IV36 2TD
tel: 01309 641239
email: john_macg@hotmail.com


Session Clerk :
Mr Alistair Farquhar
127 Pluscarden Road Elgin IV30 1SU
tel: 01343 541328
email: farquhar@davinali.fsnet.co.uk

Pastoral Assistant :
Mrs Paula Baker
18 Main Street Buckpool
tel: 01542 832662
email: mikepaulabaker@aol.com

Church Address:
Birnie, Elgin
Pluscarden, Elgin

website:http://www.pluscardenchurch.org

Location

Birnie Church
The church is about 2.5 miles south of Elgin. Take the Rothes road, then turn right in New Elgin and follow the direction signs

click here for link to multimap

Pluscarden Church
The Church is situated in the heart of Pluscarden Glen approximately 6 miles West of Elgin on the B9010 (After one mile take Miltonduff turn off)



click here for link to multimap

Information

History, Birnie:
Birnie was a commune kirk of the Cathedral of Elgin. The name of the parish is derived from that of its patron saint, St. Brendan or Brandon. The twelfth century Norman parish church remains still in use, which makes it one of the oldest church buildings in continuous use in Scotland. Note particularly the Norman chancel arch and doorways when visiting. Within the church there is an ancient square bell, a very early Norman font and a Hairy Bible of 1773, so called because of the leather binding with the calfskin hair still attached. Once one of the seats of the Bishop of Moray, Simon, fourth Bishop of Moray, was buried here in 1184. The church was altered in 1734 and restored by A. Marshall Mackenzie in 1891. In its kirkyard is a Pictish stone on which is carved the images of an eagle, a notched rectangle and a Z-rod. The Picts would have been the first Christians at Birnie, thus the presence of Christianity predates the ancient church itself by several centuries.

History, Pluscarden:
Around 1730 a small allowance was procured from the Royal Bounty Committee to conduct services within the semi-dismantled Cistercian Priory. The Established Church continued services there until 1843 when the minister and all the congregation except one family "came out" with the Disruption. The people continued to worship within the Priory as a congregation of the Free Church until 1897, when the Marquis of Bute purchased the building with the plan of returning it to the Catholic Church for restoration to its former glory.

The present Pluscarden Church, constructed from local stone, was built in 1898 and is of typical early 'Scotch Gothic' architectural design. An effort was made to introduce as many of the architectural features of the Priory as possible into the design, examples of this being the slits and corbal course of the 67 foot tower, the wheel window and the chimney stack on the east gable. The tower is surmounted by a red tile spire.

The congregations of Birnie and Pluscarden were linked in 1972, united in 2004 and linked with Elgin High Church.