| Period Notes |
Culdee settlement founded in AD 580, or possibly (according to another source) in AD 719.
Timeline for the Old Parish Church: 1219 - Deer Abbey founded by William Comyn, Earl of Buchan. The church in Old Deer was possibly established at the same time (Fawcett, 2008, 459). 1256 - Reference to Old Deer Church when money granted from it to Aberdeen Cathedral (Fawcett, 2008, 459). 1649 - New pulpit built and ‘…they appointed Mr. George Clark, Schoolmaster, all the room from the great south door eastwards as much as shall be left when the new pulpit shall be builded.’ (Gibbon, 1927, 178). 1731 - Church ruinous and preaching done in churchyard. Monument to Ann Stuart set in S wall of the chancel and the walled enclosure built around the lair. Considerable reconstruction of the chancel as a burial aisle (Gibbon, 1927, 178 and Fawcett, 2008, 459). 1762 - Records of the measurements of the church: N wall 69’ 2” long with no door, S wall 69’11” long with two doors, E and W walls 21’” and 21’2” wide respectively, with no doors (Gibbon, 1927, 178). This suggests that the chancel was no longer regarded as part of the church and that only the nave (21m x 6m) was included. It does raise the question as to why the arch is not mentioned- possibly this may have been because there was just a door/grill to the burial aisle, rather than a proper external door. 1789 - New church built and nave truncated and W wall rebuilt (Fawcett, 2008, 459). If the 1762 measurement of the nave is correct, the nave was reduced in length from 21m to the present 6m.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)