St Mary's Chapel is a late 12th/early 13th century chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 found in Rattray

Rattray, Aberdeenshire

Rattray , had been settled as far back as 4000 BC and was named a Royal Burgh in 1563 by Mary, Queen of Scots, "to put an end to the disputes about superiority over it between William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal and George Hay, 7th Earl of Erroll"...

, Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It was built by William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan

William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan

William Comyn was one of four sons of Richard Comyn, Justiciar of Lothian and Hextilda of Tynedale. He was born in Scotland, in Altyre, Moray in 1163 and died in Buchan in 1233 where he is buried in Deer Abbey...

 during the same period as the Castle of Rattray

Castle of Rattray

The Castle of Rattray was a medieval Scottish castle, with multiple variations on its structure over approximately six centuries. Originally built as a "late 12th- or early 13th century defensive motte" it provided protection for Starny Keppie harbour and Rattray village...

 and was "private chapel for the castle" and its residents. "Dedicated to the Virgin Mary" it was possibly constructed after the "drowning of a"... [unknown] "son of Comyn in the well near by."

There is some controversy as to the date of the chapel's construction. There is a wall plaque with the date 911, but this is certainly a fake as the style of the church and its windows did not appear in Scotland until the late 12th century, which coincides with an account that states it "probably dates back to the late 1100s." William Comyn did not inherit the Earldom of Buchan until 1212, so the chapel's construction almost certainly did not begin prior to this date.

William Comyn is recorded as giving the chapel "a gift of wax" on a yearly basis "between 1214 and 1233" so it must have at least been under construction as early as 1214. The gift "derived from bees" had a weight of "two stones" (approx. 10.8 kg) and was the full amount that Comyn received from "Cospatric Macmadethyn"... "at Whitsunday

Pentecost

Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

 yearly" for the rent of the "lands and mill of Stratheyn and Kyndrochet".

One account gives the specific date of construction as 1220.

External links

• St Mary's Chapel images on Flickr
  Flickr
  Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
  
  . Two sets of pictures tagged; "oldrattray" and "oldkirkofrattray"