Churches of Aberdeen

Like most Scottish burghs, Aberdeen has many churches, however, in the Middle Ages there was only one burgh kirk, St Nicholas, one of Scotland’s largest parish churches. Like a number of other Scottish kirks, it was subdivided after the Reformation, in this case into the East and West churches.

The large kirkyard of St Nicholas’ Kirk is separated from Union Street by a 147 ft (45 m) long Ionic facade, built in 1830. The divided church within, with a central tower and spire, forms one continuous building, 220 ft (67 m) in length. It contains the Drum Aisle (the ancient burial-place of the Irvines of Drum Castle) and the Collison Aisle, which divide the two congregations and which formed the transepts of the 12th-century church of St Nicholas (architectural detail survives from this period).

The West Church was built in 1775, in the Italian style, on the site of the medieval nave, the East originally in 1834 in Gothic-revival style on the site of the choir. In 1874 a fire destroyed the East Church and the old central tower with its fine peal of nine bells, one of which, Laurence or “Lowrie", was 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter at the mouth, 3.5 ft (1.1 m) high and very thick. The church was rebuilt and a massive granite tower erected over the intervening aisles, a new peal of 36 bells, cast in the Netherlands, being installed to commemorate the Victorian jubilee of 1887. These were replaced in 1950 with a carillion of 48 bells, the largest in the United Kingdom.

The Diocese of Aberdeen is said to have been first founded at Mortlach in Banffshire by Malcolm II (1005-34) to celebrate his victory there over the Danes, but in 1137 David I (1124-53) transferred the bishopric to Old Aberdeen, and twenty years later St Machar’s Cathedral, situated a few hundred yards from the Don, was begun. Save during the episcopate of William Elphinstone (1484-1511), the building progressed slowly. Gavin Dunbar, who followed him in 1518, completed the structure by adding the two western spires and the southern transept. The church suffered severely at the Reformation, but is still used by the Church of Scotland as a parish church. The choir was abandoned to decay and the central tower collapsed in the course of the 17th century. It now consists of the nave and the two-storeyed entrance porch (the former in use as the parish church) and the lower walls of the transepts.

These are under the care of Historic Scotland, and contain an important group of late medieval bishops’ tombs, protected from the weather by modern canopies. The Cathedral is chiefly built of outlayer granite, and, though one of the plainest cathedrals in Scotland, its stately simplicity and severe symmetry lend it unique distinction. On the unique flat panelled ceiling of the nave (first half of the 16th century) are the heraldic shields of the contemporary kings of Europe, and the chief earls and bishops of Scotland. The great west window contains modern painted glass of excellent colour and design. The Cathedral contains a number of well-preserved grave-monuments to the late medieval clergy, a rare Romanesque cross-head and an early Christian cross-slab from Seaton.

In the Middle Ages, Aberdeen contained houses of the Carmelites (Whitefriars) and Franciscans (Greyfriars), the latter surviving in modified form as the chapel of Marischal College as late as the early 20th century. No remains above ground.

St. Mary’s Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral. A Gothic building, it was erected in 1859.

St. Andrew’s Cathedral is the Scottish Episcopal cathedral. The Episcopal Church in Aberdeen is notable for having consecrated the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Samuel Seabury (Web Link). The cathedral was rennovated in the 1930s to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Seabury’s consecration. The memorial was dedicated with a ceremony attended by the then U.S. ambassador to the UK, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

The cemeteries are St Peter’s in Old Aberdeen, Trinity near the links, Nellfield at the junction of Great Western and Holburn Roads, Allenvale, adjoining Duthie Park and the most recent Facilities at Dyce. There is also a crematorium and cemetery near Hazlehead.