ABSTRACT
This paper will focus on the impact of the Reformation on parish churches and rural chapels within the lordship of the Earls Marischal from 1560 to 1625. The immediate problem for the Reformed Church was that of pre-Reformation neglect and a shortage of funds. Superfluous chapels were abandoned (Cowie, Kincardine) and old kirks were adapted as best they could, even if they were ill suited as preaching boxes (Fetteresso). Gradually, there was more intervention in the fabric of parish churches by landowners and the nobility, in the form of burial aisles and vaults (Dunnottar, Benbolm). Once the reformed kirk had consolidated its position in the 1610s it entered a period of rationalization, for which the noble patrons of the parishes were intimately involved. Some churches were abandoned (Fetterangus, Keith Marischal), some moved to more convenient locations (Longley) and wholly new churches were built in newly created parishes (Longside and New Deer). The new kirk of Longside (1620) is considered in detail as it shows the notion of what a reformed kirk should look like as well as the process by which it was made. This chapter argues that often the kirks and their patrons had an uneasy relationship and parish reform could be slow and painful.
