Fetternear Bishop's Palace is an archaeological site of what was one of the palaces (or residences) of the medieval
bishops of Aberdeen
The Bishop of Aberdeen (originally Bishop of Mortlach, in Latin Murthlacum) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Aberdeen, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics, whose first recorded bishop is an early 12th-century cleric named Nech ...
. It is near
Kemnay
Kemnay ( Gaelic: ''Camnaidh'') is a village west of Aberdeen in Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
History
The village name ''Kemnay'' is believed to originate from the Celtic words that mean "little crook in the river" due to the village loc ...
in
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...
. Later, a ruined tower-house and mansion of Fetternear House were built on part of the site.
Fetternear parish and the location of the bishop’s palace
The bishop's palace at Fetternear was situated in what was, in medieval times, a separate parish. At the end of the sixteenth century the parish was incorporated, along with
Logie Durno, into that of
Chapel of Garioch. Fetternear's parish
kirk was dedicated to St Ninian and was on the north bank of the
River Don about a mile from the bishop's palace.
The palace itself is on sloping ground above the Marshes Burn near its confluence with the River Don opposite Kemnay. Placename scholars consider the ''Fetter-'' element of the name to be derived from the Gaelic term ''fetter'' (or fother, fodder, fether). Toponyms of this type typically refer to the situation of the place on shelving or terraced land. Scholars do not agree on the meaning of the ''–near'' element of the placename.
In documentary sources
The lands of Fetternear belonged to the church from at least the twelfth century. There are few documentary references to the bishop's palace, although the name of Fetternear (in various spellings) does occur in medieval charters. In 1157
Pope Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV ( la, Adrianus IV; born Nicholas Breakspear (or Brekespear); 1 September 1159, also Hadrian IV), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman t ...
confirmed that the manor and lands belonged to
Edward, Bishop of Aberdeen.
Alexander II of Scotland designated in 1242 the lands of Fetternear and Brass (now
Forest of Birse
The Forest of Birse is a remote upland area in the upper catchment of the Water of Feugh, which forms the south-western portion of the Parish of Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It also forms the western part of the community of Finzean, but has ...
) as free forests or, in other words, hunting reserves. He granted them to
Ralph, Bishop of Aberdeen.
A tradition reported in 1522 by
Hector Boece, the first principal of the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...
, concerned
Bishop Alexander de Kininmund I, who is reported to have spent Easter at
Old Aberdeen, summer at Fetternear, autumn at
Old Rayne
Old Rayne is a small village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately north west of Inverurie and south east of Huntly along the A96 road.
Geography
Old Rayne is bordered by the River Ury.
Etymology
The word "Rayne" comes from the Scottish ...
and Christmas at
Mortlach. According to Boece, Bishop Alexander undertook these pastoral visitations "to educate his flock and correct their errors" and, in order to fulfil these duties, he began to construct residences in each of the four named places. Boece said that Bishop Alexander completed the palaces at Aberdeen and Fetternear despite the distractions caused by the
First War of Scottish Independence against England. Given that the earlier charters mention the existence of a manor at Fetternear, Bishop Alexander must have been responsible for rebuilding the palace.
Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project – Fetternear
In an architectural history of the
post-medieval mansion at Fetternear, H. Gordon Slade mentioned that very little of the bishop's palace remained visible above ground. He speculated that the "foundations or lower walls" were perhaps of a tower built in an "L"-shaped plan. Slade's article concentrates mainly on the post-
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
architectural history of Fetternear House and its associations with the
Leslies of
Balquhain
Balquhain, also known as Balquhain Stone Circle, is a recumbent stone circle from Inverurie in Scotland. It is a scheduled ancient monument.
Description and measurements
It is located in farmland at an altitude of c. on a terraced hillside lea ...
, the family who obtained the estate after the Protestant Reformation in 1560.
Given that very little scholarly attention had been given to the medieval bishop's palace of Fetternear, the late Nicholas Bogdan, of the Scottish Castles Survey, and
Penelope (Penny) Dransart, of the
University of Wales, Lampeter, founded the Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project (SEPP) in 1995.
The aim of the project is to investigate the architectural development of Scottish bishops’ palaces as residences that were designed to facilitate pastoral visitations throughout the diocese. To date the project has concentrated on the site of Fetternear in the medieval
diocese of Aberdeen and on
Kinneddar in the
diocese of Moray
The Diocese of Moray was one of the most important of the medieval dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Its territory was in central northern Scotland.
History
It was founded in the early years of the 12th century by David I ...
.
The excavations at Fetternear done by SEPP have established that the visible remains of the foundations observed by Slade were heavily remodelled in the late nineteenth century, by one of the Leslie lairds of Balquhain and Fetternear. This remodelling was done after an excavation of those parts of the bishop's palace that lay under the lawns in front of the mansion. William Kelly, the Aberdeen architect, reported having seen moulded stonework from the excavation in the first decade of the twentieth century, commenting on its fine quality.
The work of SEPP has demonstrated that the medieval bishop's palace was largely surrounded by a moat. In all probability the earliest palace was constructed from timber on the platform enclosed by the moat, from which the water flowed through a ditch leading to the Marshes Burn. The 2006 excavation uncovered evidence for an oak palisade on the inside of the moat, surrounding the buildings of the palace. The entrance to the palace from the southeast would have been over a timber trestle bridge, the sole plate of which was excavated in 2009. During the 2005 and 2006 excavation seasons, the excavation team also explored the kitchen, in the south-west corner of the palace.
In 2010, surviving sections of the south and east wall of a masonry-built chapel were identified a short distance south of the tower-house. As a visitor entered over the timber bridge into the medieval palace, he or she would have had to have turned right to gain entry to the chapel.
[Dransart, P 2017 Bishops' residences, saints' cults, and the legacy of sacred authority in the medieval dioceses of St Andrews and Glasgow, 81-98 and plate 11. In D. Rollson (ed.), Princes of the Church: Bishops and their Palaces. London: Routledge, The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 39.]
2010 was the sixteenth and final excavation season in SEPP's work at Fetternear. Since then, the project has entered the post-excavation phase, and is conducting research into the documentary sources relating to the history of the site and a detailed study of the finds. Feld walking surveys have also been carried out in the surrounding area.
From 30 March to 27 October 2013 an exhibition entitled 'Light Divine: Church and Chapel Windows at Fetternear, Aberdeenshire' was held at Blairs Museum - The Museum of Scotland's Catholic Heritage, Aberdeen. This exhibition focused on the buildings associated with Christian worship in the palace and elsewhere on the Fetternear estate. It explored the qualities and characteristics of the window glass used in these structures as well as displaying other glass finds from the excavation.
References
{{Palaces in Scotland
Castles in Aberdeenshire
Category B listed buildings in Aberdeenshire
Listed castles in Scotland
Clan Leslie
Episcopal palaces in Scotland
Former palaces in Scotland