The Coming of Christianity to Buchan:

Christianity first came to Britain around 250 AD, during the Roman period. When the Romans left these early Christians were pushed out to the West by invading Angles and Saxons. The descendants of one of these Christians, Patrick was born in Wales around 390 AD. He was captured and taken as a slave to Ireland but eventually escaped. Later he returned to convert his former captors to Christianity.

About a hundred years later a Christian Irishman, (563) Columba brought Christianity to Scotland, landing on the Island of Iona. Here Columba set up a base from which he set out to convert Scotland. The church he established was known as the Celtic Church.

At this time the people who lived in this area were the Picts -a mixture of people including the Celts and Beaker People. The Romans called them the Picts because they tattooed themselves.

The first person to bring Christianity to Aberdeenshire however was not Columba but St. Ninian. He landed at Whithorn in 396 and founded a monastery. From here he travelled up to the North East of Scotland. He established a Church in Methlick where St Ninian’s Well can still be found. Ninian was a follower of the French saint, Martin and it is probably after this saint that the area Formartine is called.

Another missionary active in the area at this time was St Ternan. He was active in the Banchory area. The name "Banchory" comes from "bangor" which means a monastery. At Slams, in the manse garden, is St Ternan’s Well.Around 400 St Machar worked around Donside. St Machar’s Cathedral, in Aberdeen, is built on the site of St Machar’s old Church.

In Buchan however it was a missionary called Drostan who was particularly important and it was he who established the monastery at Old Deer. Other important missionaries at this time were St Fergus and St Colm. These people were here 1400 years ago but their impact can still be felt today.

Missionaries from the West also came and although they worked very hard at trying to convert our Pictish ancestors it took another 300 years more for the complete conversion of Aberdeenshire.

St Donnan who built a monastery on the island of Eigg, established a church at Auchterless. St Congan established a monastery at Turriff and St Devenick, as well as giving his name to Banchory Devenick, established another church at Methlick almost 500 years after St Ninian.

The End of the Celtic Church
Originally Buchan was part of Pictland at the time Scotland consisted of four countries; Dalriada, Pictland, Lothian and Strathclyde. In 844 Pictland and Dairiada united in the kingdom of Alba, under the King, Kenneth MacAlpin.

Eventually Scotland became one Kingdom under Duncan in 1034 although the North and Islands were occupied by Vikings. These Vikings used to raid Buchan and even occupied Gainrie for a while. A Danish army under Canute landed at Cruden Bay but was defeated. The defeated Danes fled North and were defeated in further skirmishes at Memsie.

King Duncan was killed by Macbeth in 1040, but Macbeth was in turn killed by Duncan’s son, Malcolm Canmore near Lumphanan. Malcolm becoming the new king. Malcolm married Margaret a member of the English royal family. Malcolm himself had lived a long time in England.Malcolm and Margaret loved all things English and set about making Scotland more like England. This was significant for religion in the Buchan area because Malcolm and Margaret favoured the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, popular in England. She did not approve of the Celtic form of Christianity established by Columba, Ninian and Drostan and had no time for the Gaelic language. So she set about trying to "reform" the Church by introducing the English language. Her descendants carried on these reforms and as a result many abbeys and monasteries were built and occupied by monks from Europe and England. Scotland was divided up into dioceses under Bishops, each in charge of a number of parishes. In 1218 William Comyn, the first Earl of Buchan founded the Cistercian Abbey of Deer. (The "Comyn" name is still found in Buchan as "Cumming") Whether the abbey founded by Drostan still existed at this time is unclear. The ruins that we see today are the remains of this abbey that is still owned by the Roman Catholic church.

Eventually all over Scotland the Celtic church was crushed. English Catholics became the Scottish bishops and slowly the English language started to replace Gaelic and Pictish.