Moy

This parish is not to be confused with Moy which is beside the Loch of Moy in Stratdearn {NGR: NH 772342}, which was in the Deanery of Inverness, and which is more properly known as the parish of Lunnin or Moymore.

It is suggested that the dedication of this church of Moy may have been to St Ninian.

The church of Moy has left only the slightest trace in the historical record, indeed, it may be asked why a church ever existed here at all! But if we take a little time to study a copy of the early editions of the Ordance Survey maps of the area, then we can gain a valuable insight. The church and its graveyard are clearly marked and are shown to lie on the natural route that would be taken, after having crossed the River Findhorn by the ferry which operated at the Broom of Moy salmon fishery {NGR: NJ 021592}, travelling past Moy House to cross the Muckle Burn at the ford opposite Craigfield {NGR: NJ 009600}, and then passing onwards to Kintessack. It would also have been beside the alternative path which led across the Muckle Burn, somewhat downstream, at the ford opposite Earnhill {NGR: NJ 016608}, then passing onwards to Kincorth House and estate.

The remains of the church and its graveyard are still to be found a little to the south of Moy House. It is said that a number of gravestones remain but everything is much overgrown {NGR: NJ 016598}.

The district which came to be called Moy - from Maigh, 'a plain', and formerly Mey - was comprised of two distinct estates, Easter Mey and Wester Mey. In 1798, when the Rev John Dunbar wrote the entry in the Old Statistical Account, both of these estates were held by the same proprietor. The church, which he called a prebendary church, stood in the village and lands of Easter Mey. This church of Moy was provided with a small glebe which is shown on the first OS maps centred at {NGR: NJ 006593} .¹

Very early in the history of the Diocese of Moray, c.1222, a prebend was created using the teind scheaves {parsonage tithes} of Moy which, without the need to appropriate the whole of the parish church's revenues, provided a sufficiently large income to support one of the canons of Elgin Cathedral. In the majority of the prebends in Moray, the entire parish revenues were allocated to the prebendary, he then being responsible for providing a cleric, usually in minor orders, to serve the 'cure'. Although it is apparent that Bishop Bricius intended to create this prebend, it is not clear if this was achieved before his death in 1222, or whether the task was left to his successor.

In the period immediately after the Reformation, and perhaps for some years previously, the church of Moy was served by the same minister as served the churches of Forres and Dyke. Indeed, in 1618, Moy was united with Dyke parish.

 

Some lands in the medieval parish of Moy.

Name	OS Grid Ref.	Extent	Comment
Moy	NJ 016602
Kincorth	NJ 012616
Invererne	NJ 032605
Grangehill	NJ 177697		Was renamed Dalvey.
Moy Carse	NJ 024606	43.6 acres	Easter Moy.
Upper Buchtalies
Nether Buchtalies

 

The lands of Easter Moy {NGR: NJ 024606}, also known as Moy Carse, are something of an anomaly since, although they are geographically situated in Morayshire, they are subject to the jurisdiction of the county of Nairn. This is because these lands had belonged to the Thanes of Cawdor in the period when they were hereditary Sheriffs of Nairn. Such 'appendages' were made per annexationem, after the introduction of the feudal system, to gratify the haughty spirit of the feudal Barons, who would neither reside, nor let their vassals live, under any other jurisdiction but their own.² Easter Moy was purchased from the Earl of Ross by Donald, Thane of Cawdor, anno 1410. It was then the property of a branch of the family of Cawdor for six generations.³

The lands of Grangehill {NGR: NJ 007590}, which the Grant family re-named Dalvey in memory of one of their properties on Speyside, was, in the pre-Reformation period, part of the belongings of Pluscarden Priory. As the name implies, the monks erected a 'grange' here so as to be better able to administer their 'western' properties. In 1565, Grangehill appears in the Rentale Ecclesiarum Episcopatus Moraviensis as paying £4. 3s. 4d. (iiij lib. iii s. iiij d.) per annum.⁴ Members of the family of Dunbar of Durris (Dores) were, for several generations, Bailies and Justiciars of Pluscarden, and one of them, Mark Dunbar, bought the Priory's grazing lands, naming his new estate Grangehill. Members of the Dunbar family descended of the Dunbars of Westfield, owned many of the properties near Moy, including - Grangehill (Dalvey); Wester Moy; Moy House; Kintessack; Kincorth. The hamlet of Kintessack was at the heart of the Dunbar of Durris and Dunbar of Grangehill families' activities in the area.

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Other Churches and Chapels in the parish .

Kincorth: There are references to a chapel, dedicated to St Ninian, lying close to the House of Kincorth. Jervaise wrote that, "There was a chapel dedicated to St Ninian, near Kincorth, where the name is still preserved in Ninian's Croft. The tenant of the farm, of which the croft forms a part, is bound to pay to the kirk session yearly the price of three old bolls of barley for behoof of the poor".⁵

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Parish Clergy :

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