THE CHURCH OF BIRN1E : 



AND THE 



EARLY BISHOPS OF MORAY. 



The Parish of Birnie is one of the most interesting 

 districts in the Province of Moray, and it was fitting 

 that one of the excursions of the Elgin Literary and 

 Scientific Association should be made to it, as was 

 done on Saturday, 3rd May, 1884. That excursion 

 had two main objects — to examine the ancient Church of 

 Birnie, and to visit the Ess of Glenlaterach, one of the 

 most singular of the geological features of the county. 

 Both these objects were fully and pleasantly attained. 



The Parish may be described as a parallelogram, lying 

 on a slope towards the north, connecting the agricultural 

 plain of Moray with the gradually rising chains and 

 peaks of a mountain area that culminates in the 

 great ranges of the Cairngorm and Monaleadh. Streams 

 which are tributary to the Lossie drain its valleys, and 

 the Lossie itself, descending by many a rocky fall and pool 

 through the chasms by which it has worn for itself an 

 outlet from the wide lake-levels of Kellas, flows placidly 

 by the dark red cliffs and whin-grown flats that lie round 

 the " Holy Hill " of Birnie. Nothing can exceed the 

 beauty, in autumn, of some of those wilder passes, where 



