Page 25 - LOTN Spring Issue 49 2022

FAITH AND CULTURE

Churches of the

Diocese of Aberdeen

The Church of

St Peter's, Buckie

Under the aegis of Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti we
continue our series celebrating the rich variety of church
buildings in the Diocese. The Church of St Peter's, Buckie,
featured in this issue, was completed in 1857. In concept and
scale St Peter's reflects more the style of a cathedral rather than St Peter's, Buckie
a parish church and is without question the most imposing 1123 gaining its dominance over the earlier settlement by the
ecclesiastical building in Buckie. The following article is based building of the new and better harbour than that at Nether
on the scale drawings and text of architect Oliver R. Humphries Buckie first in 1857 and subsequently in 1874-80.
FRIAS and the line drawings of Professor John R. Hume, a
talented illustrator, historian and architectural expert. It was in the old town of Nether Buckie that Bishop Kyle,
after unsuccessfully trying to obtain ground in Easter Buckie,
BY OLIVER R HUMPHRIES FRIAS AND obtained a site not only large enough for the new church but
PROFESSOR JOHN R HUME also adequate for a school planned to be built later and provide
The Burgh and the Church a generous precinct in which the church complex can stand so

he Burgh of Buckie in the Parish of Rathven,
Banffshire, is a coastal village situated on the
Moray Firth between Banff, Macduff to the
Teast and Fochabers and Elgin to the west. It is
divided into two parts in the tradition of Scottish Burghs,
old or original, and new town. The new town is in a
grid pattern as was the logical fashion of the time and is
physically separated the one from the other by the Buckie
burn. Predominantly, it looks to the sea for its livelihood
although landward of the Burgh is a coastal strip of rich
agricultural land stretching inland by approximately two
miles to the rising ground of the Braes of Enzie.
The original part or Nether Buckie (sometimes known
as Buckpool) is on land which was in the ownership of Sir
William Gordon Bart of Letterfourie and Nether Buckie and
dates from about 1650. The new town, or Easter Buckie was
built on land in the ownership of John Gordon Esq, of Cluny
Fruechnie, and part of Buckie and Gallochie was started in
Line drawing of St Peter's, Buckie by John Hume
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