Spynie Palace and Loch from Spynie Kirkyard - geograph

Spynie was a seaport,

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 ...

and

ancient 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. ...

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 Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, that survives as a small hamlet and

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 ...

. It is the location of the ruins of

Spynie Palace Spynie Palace, also known as Spynie Castle, was the fortified seat of the Bishops of Moray for about 500 years in Spynie, Moray, Scotland. The founding of the palace dates back to the late 12th century. It is situated about 500 m from the locati ...

, which was the principal residence of the

Bishops of Moray A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

between the 12th and 17th centuries, and the churchyard of

Holy Trinity Church, Spynie Holy Trinity Church, Spynie was until 1735 the parish church of Spynie, Moray in north-east Scotland, and served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Moray between 1207 and 1224. No trace of the church can now be seen, but its graveyard remains n ...

, which served as the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

of 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 ...

between 1207 and 1224.

History

Large deposits of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

and cockle shells in the area provide evidence of human habitation going back to the

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

period, and artefacts from

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

occupation, including axes, pottery and shell deposits have been found on the site of the later settlement. Spynie developed as a seaport on the south shore of

Loch Spynie Loch Spynie is a small loch located between the towns of Elgin and Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. Close to Spynie Palace, the ancient home of the bishops of Moray, it is an important wildlife habitat which is protected as a Ramsar Site. His ...

, a much larger body of water in the medieval period than the present day, and one that was open to the sea until the late 15th century. Holy Trinity Church was in existence by the 12th century and possibly earlier and was, alongside Birnie and

Kinneddar Kinneddar is a small settlement on the outskirts of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, near the main entrance to RAF Lossiemouth. Long predating the modern town of Lossiemouth, Kinneddar was a major monastic centre for the Pictish kingdom of Fortri ...

, one of the early centres of the

. Bishop

John de Pilmuir John de Pilmuir ''Pilmor, Pylmore(died 1362) was a 14th-century prelate based in Scotland. He was probably the son of Adam de Pilmuir, a Dundee burgess, and the brother of Richard de Pilmuir, Bishop of Dunkeld (1337/38–1345/47). Originally a ...

is recorded in the mid 14th century having deepened the channel between Spynie and the sea by sinking boats to change the flow of water. Later in the century Bishop

Alexander Bur Alexander Bur (died 1397) was a 14th-century Scottish cleric. It is highly possible that Bur came from somewhere in or around Aberdeenshire, although that is not certain and is only based on the knowledge that Aberdeenshire is where other peopl ...

was forced to defend the rights of the port of Spynie against challenge from the Earl of Moray and burgesses of Elgin, making a "protestation" that for more than a century the bishops "had and were accustomed to have the fishers of sea fish living in the toun of Spynie with their wives and families, sailing from Spynie out to sea and bringing back their boats with fish through the same port". In 1451 all of the lands belonging to the church in Moray were combined into the

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Spynie. Spynie itself was erected into a

burgh of barony A burgh of barony was a type of Scottish town (burgh). Burghs of barony were distinct from royal burghs, as the title was granted to a landowner who, as a tenant-in-chief, held his estates directly from the crown. (In some cases, they might also ...

on 4 July 1451, with its inhabitants having the right to conduct fishing, fishmongery, butchery and brewing, and hold a weekly market and an annual fair. In 1459 grain is recorded as being exported from Spynie to

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

. The customs from the port were granted to the Earl of Moray in 1566, but the town was already in decline - the value of rentals in Spynie had declined from £10 per year in 1565 to £5 per year in 1574. The silting up of Loch Spynie removed Spynie's access to the sea, and by the end of the 17th century the town had disappeared.

References

Bibliography

* * {{cite book , last1=Ross , first1=Alasdair , date=2015 , title=Land assessment and lordship in medieval Northern Scotland , location=Turnhout , publisher=Brepols , isbn= 9782503541334, page=290 Villages in Moray Civil parishes of Scotland