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MHG40741 - Old Urray, Cemetery - Orrin Bridge

Summary

Old Urray Cemetery

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

NH55SW 7 5070 5324.
Chapel (NR) (Site of) OS 6"map, (1938)

A piece of enclosed ground used as a burial ground for the church district of Urray. A chapel stood in the graveyard, nothing now remaining, and date of erection is not known.
Name Book 1876; OPS 1855. <1><2>

There is no trace of this chapel. Just W of OS siting symbol is a small 19th C burial enclosure which the parish minister (Mr Grant, Muir of Ord) believes incorporates part of its walls. This view however cannot be supported by ground inspection, though it is possible that some of the stone from the chapel could have been used in its construction. One of the stones forming part of the W door jamb bears the inscription AMD 18 1531. The graveyard is still in occasional use. The oldest legible gravestones are 19th C.
Visited by OS (J B) 23 June 1975.

NB LB record for C18 church to S at Urray says that includes earlier stonework from this church - HAW 02/2005

Old burial ground with remains of redundant church tucked away at the back of a caravan park. The burial ground has varied styles of gravestone and the ground is uneven indicating layers of burials. Visited during the Highland Kirkyards project, run by Highland Buildings Preservation Trust. <3><4>

In 2021 members of the North of Scotland Archaeological Society undertook a project to record the gravestones in the Old Urray Burial Ground. The project included a limited amount of documentary research and visits to nearby associated sites– the “glebe” land, the former manse (HC HER MHG47765), the “new” manse (HC HER 8996) and the “West” Church (HC HER MHG23404).

The Old Burial Ground has been used until relatively recently. It occupies the west corner of a large field, is sub-rectangular in shape, aligned NE-SW and generally 1m above the ground surface of the field. It is surrounded by a stone wall and maintained by Highland Council. No physical remains of the Old Church can be confidently identified today however the OSA and the Presbytery minutes state that the masonry of the Old Church was reused in the building of the West Kirk in 1780. The West Kirk is fairly plain and it was impossible to say with any certainty that the stonework included masonry from the Old Kirk. However the collection of carved stones which line the driveway around the “new” Manse include ornately carved ridge stones, finials and curving coping stones which may originally have been part of the Old Kirk. <5>

Sources/Archives (8)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 5069 5322 (67m by 73m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH55SW
Geographical Area	ROSS AND CROMARTY
Civil Parish	URRAY

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