Rathven ( sco, Raffin) is an ecclesiastical parish, village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the historic county of Banff, now in

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

, Scotland. The civil parish was last used as a census subdivision in 2001 when the population was 12,378, The former

burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

Buckie Buckie ( gd, Bucaidh) is a burgh town (defined as such in 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was abolished in 1975. The town is the ...

is the largest settlement in the parish, which also includes

Findochty Findochty (pronounced , sco, Finichty, gd, Am Fionn Ochdamh) is a village in Moray, Scotland, on the shores of the Moray Firth; historically it was part of Banffshire. The Gaelic name of the village was recorded by Diack using his own transcri ...

and

Portknockie Portknockie ( gd, Port Chnocaidh, the hilly port) is a coastal village on the Moray Firth within Moray, Scotland. The village's name is written as Portknockies in the Old Parish Registers. This would suggest that the port's name referred to not ...

Churches

A medieval church dedicated to St Peter was built before the Reformation. The Rannas Aisle of 1612 is all that remains of the early church. This was built by the Hays of Rannas. In 1224 a John Bisset, linked to the church, built a leper hospital. This was converted into a Bedesman Hospital. At the time of the Reformation the church was under the control of St Mary's Collegiate Church in Cullen.Fasti ecclesiastae Scoticana by Hew Scott The Roman Catholic St Peter's Church is in the town of Buckie. It is sometimes inaccurately referred to as a cathedral.

St Gregory's Church, Preshome St. Gregory's Church is a Roman Catholic church at Preshome near Buckie in north-east Scotland. It is protected as a category A listed building. Built in 1788, St. Gregory's was the first church building to be openly built by Catholics in Scotl ...

and St Ninian's Church, Tynet are served from here. The church was built in 1851–7 to a design by Bishop James Kyle and Alexander and William Reid. In 1907 the chancel, altar and baptistry were altered by

Charles Jean Ménart Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, who also designed St Aloysius Church, Glasgow.

Notable people

George Hay was the first post-Reformation minister of the parish and served as

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland, minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week i ...

in March 1571. Rev

William Scrogie William Scrogie (1609–1675) was a Scottish clergyman in the Church of Scotland who served as Bishop of Argyll. Life He was born in Old Aberdeen the son of Rev Alexander Scrogie minister of St Machar's Cathedral and Rector of King's Col ...

, minister from 1649 to 1667, leaving to take his position as

Bishop of Argyll The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into t ...

. The Addison family in Rathven can be traced back to the 17th century and this branch includes the Canadian-Czech philanthropist, Vincent Peter Addison (d. 2007) and the travel writer, David M. Addison whose latest work "Confessions of a Banffshire Loon" contains much information about the Addisons of Rathven as well as the Addisons of nearby Portknockie where Joseph Addison was the first Provost. There are also a couple of chapters on the Gordons of Letterfourie who were the lairds of Rathven.davidmaddison.org
retrieved 20 November 2013

References

Villages in Moray Buckie {{moray-geo-stub

Churches

Notable people

See also

References