Description

The monument consists of the remains of the thirteenth-century chapel of Cowie which was originally dedicated to St Nechtan or Nathalan (d.679) but was re-dedicated to the Virgin (St Mary of the Storms) in 1276 by William Wishart, Bishop of St Andrews. Cowie was never a parish church and it was suppressed in the early 1560s.

The single-chambered building of random coursed whinstone with freestone dressings is situated on the coast N of Stonehaven. It measures 22.6m E-W by 7.6m N-S over walls 0.9m thick. The only feature surviving in the much reduced N wall is a square aumbry near the E end. The S wall, partly rebuilt about 1870, contains a late Medieval entrance with moulded doorframe and a segmental-arched head.

The E gable is lit by three lancet windows, with pointed and splayed rear arches, of thirteenth-century date. The central window is flanked by two shorter lights. The W gable has a squat rectangular window from the fifteenth century when the chapel was extended. The wall heads have been consolidated and the interior is now in use for burials. The W end partly overlies a nineteenth-century vault.

The area to be scheduled is rectangular, extending 2m from the exterior walls of the chapel and measuring a maximum of 26.6m E-W by 11.6m N-S, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a good example, although somewhat restored, of a thirteenth century chapel of ambitious design, later enlarged in the fifteenth century and retaining architectural details from both phases of its development. It provides evidence and has the potential to provide further evidence, through excavation and research, which may shed light on the reasons for its abandonment prior to the Reformation, the evolution of the parish network, the history of the church, religious architecture and material culture in Scotland during the Middle Ages.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NO88NE 22.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland