Aberdeen, Castlehill, St Ninian's Chapel
Chapel (13th Century)
Site Name Aberdeen, Castlehill, St Ninian's Chapel
Classification Chapel (13th Century)
Canmore ID 20159
Site Number NJ90NW 38
NGR NJ 9463 0640
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/20159
- Council Aberdeen, City Of
- Parish Aberdeen
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District City Of Aberdeen
- Former County Aberdeenshire
NJ90NW 38 9463 0640.
(NJ 9463 0640) Site of St Ninian's Chapel (NR)
OS 1:500 map, Aberdeenshire, 2nd ed., (1901).
The site of St Ninian's Chapel, erected c.1500 and used as a place of worship for, apparently, only about twenty years. Thereafter it was used for various secular purposes, including a beacon (16th century), Quaker prison (1662) and barracks (1729). It was demolished in 1794 and the site is now occupied by flats. (Fraser 1905).
Visited by OS (JLD) 28 August 1952.
G M Fraser 1905.
The site of this chapel lies in a redeveloped part of the city.
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ATW), 26 February 1997.
Publication Account (1997)
There was a chapel housed in the castle by 1264 at latest. After the destruction of the castle sometime in the early four teenth century, according to some secondary sources, a chapel dedicated to St Ninian was placed on Castle Hill as successor to the Castle Chapel. It has, however, also been argued that the chapel was not founded until 1504, when it was noviter constructe sujm montem castri. 5 This was still standing in 1661 , although it ceased to function purely as a place of worship after the Reformation. In 1566, the east end of the chapel was converted into a lighthouse, with a beacon containing 'a great bowet, with three flaming lights' to guide ships into Aberdeen harbour. The seventeenth century saw it functioning as a place for ceremonial laying-out of the dead, such as Bishop Patrick Forbes in 1635 and the Marchioness of Huntly in 1638, and then as a venue for the Commissary Court, for which the town council purchased a bell.8 In 1654, the Castle Hill, enclosing the chapel, was surrounded by the English with a wall of lime and stone, part of which was quarried from the chancel of the Cathedral of St Machar. What are reputed to be some of these fortifications are still extant to the south of Castle Hill and the originals are delineated on Parson Gordon's 1661 map of Aberdeen figure 6. By 1659, the English troops were evicted 'to the great joy and ease of all the citizens'. The chapel, thereafter, functioned in several capacities until 1794 when it was demolished to make way for barracks, which were in due course replaced by modern tower block flats. To date no archaeological evidence of this structure has been discovered.
Information from ‘Historic Aberdeen: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1997).