Contin

Associated Chapels: Achnachlerich {NGR NH 401656}; Innermany {NGR NH 291532}; Killin Farm (Garve) {NGR NH 39_ 60_}.

Parish Church: OS Ref: NGR NH 645691 H.E.S. No: NH45NE4 Dedication: St Maelrubhe

Many believe that the Parish Church's dedication to St Maelrubha reflects that he was, indeed, its founder which would place us in the 7th or 8th century. This may be correct but our first historical record of a church at Contin would seem to be about AD1227. This church was probably a prebend of Ross by 1227, when its holder may have been one of the undesignated canons subscribing to an episcopal agreement. It was certainly a prebend in 1344 and so continued at the Reformation when both parsonage and vicarage fruits appear to have been annexed to the prebend.

One of the old churches here was burned by the Macdonalds about 1482-1488. The present church appears to be mainly of a medieval date but many significant alterations were made to it around 1832. The main walls which exist may date back as far as 1490 reflecting a re-build after the depredations of the Macdonalds.

About a quarter of a mile from the church there is an old burying-ground called Preas Maree, i.e. St Maelrubha's Grove. [MacKinlay, p.174]

At Contin there was a fair held at one time on the last Wednesday of August. It was known as Feill-Maree.

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