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Remains of church, originally dedicated to St Nechtan (St Nathalan) but re-dedicated to the Virgin Mary in AD 1276. Through the years St Mary's enjoyed income from the surrounding rich farmlands. King James IV often stopped at Cowie and gave donations to the priests. But there were scandals at the church just before the Reformation and the roof was removed in the 1560s. The walls were then raided for building material for the growing town of Stonehaven, despite stories that the stones would rain blood if they were ever taken from the church. The building now is a simple rectangle of about 20m x 6m, with walls just under 1m thick. The east gable end of the building is original with three narrow lancet windows of the 13th Century AD. The building seems to have been lengthened at the W end during renovations in the 15th Century from the evidence of a vertical line in the inner masonry of the north wall. This north wall has been almost demolished and the south wall was partially rebuilt about 1870. At the W end is an arched vault built in 1842 which was used as a mort house where dead bodies could be securely stored until they were no longer of interest to body snatchers. The vault originally had a tiled roof and was entered by a flight of steps, but it is now turfed over and there is no access. The churchyard is still used for occasional burials. There are many 19th century gravestones, including memorials to men who died at sea (hence the local name of 'St Mary's of the Storms'). Watson, basing his theory on the old rhyme - 'Between the kirk and the kirk ford, There lies Saint Nauchlan's hoard' - suggests that St Nechtan's tomb may lie between the church and the churchyard, although the Aberdeen Breviary states that he was buried at Tullich, near Ballater.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)