THE HISTORY OF THE AREA

The Church of St Duthac at Tain

In January 1437, shortly after he had been confirmed in the earldom, Alexander was at Dingwall which had come to be recognised as the chief seat of the earls of Ross. Amongst his first acts was the issue of a charter in favour of Alexander MacCulloch, to whom he granted all the lands which lie between Tain and the Morrich More, consisting of the farms of Skardy (now Hilton), Plaids, Pitnellies, Pithogarty, Balkeith and Balcherry, plus the office of baillie of the ancient community of Tain itself. Two years later the earl attended a special court at Tain to inquire into and examine the rights and privileges of the community, and a formal report was drawn up and authenticated with his seal for deposit in the church of St Duthac. The reason for this was that shortly before 1430 the church had been burned. A party of Mowats from Caithness had been surprised on a raid into Sutherland by the Macneil Lord of Creich and had sought sanctuary at Tain. Macneil ordered that the church and all within it be burned - all the Mowats perished, as did all the charters and documents of the immunity.

Already by the time of the destruction of the chapel - which is the one whose ruins still stand on the hillock in the graveyard to the north-east of the town - the sanctuary had attained great size and wealth and other churches or chapels had been built to service the increasing flow of pilgrims. The six chaplains endowed by Earl William in 1321 could scarcely have been accommodated in the little chapel outside the town, and it is probable that a larger building on the site occupied by the present magnificent church had been built to house the main relics. Even before the destruction of the chapel it was referred to as 'collegiate', and there was certainly a collegiate church of provost and prebends here more than thirty years before King James III and the bishop of Ross formally 'founded' it in 1487.

Morangie and the Chaplainries of Tain

The charter of 1487 also stipulated the size of the establishment. As well as a provost, who was the head of the community, there were to be five prebendaries or chaplains, two subdeacons, a sacrist and three choir-boys, all of whom were to be supported on the revenues from the various lands and rights which had been granted to the church of St Duthac. None of the five chaplainries (which were named after the lands from which they drew their main revenues - Cambuscurrie, Dunskeath, Morangie, Newmore and Tarlogie) were entirely new creations. The right of appointment to the chaplainries of Cambuscurrie, Morangie and Tarlogie belonged to the earldom of Ross. The mill and mill-lands of Morangie, which Earl John had confirmed to the church in 1468, were assigned by the Charter for the support of the sacristan, who was responsible for the security and maintenance of the vestments, alter-plate and treasures of the college. Thus it would appear that when Morangie is first recorded it, along with the adjacent lands of Tarlogie and Cambuscurrie, had formed a portion of the ancient estates of the earls of Ross and that revenues from them had been long held by the church of Tain by gift of the earls.

The income from the lands alone, however, was only part of the priests' endowments. Since at least 1458 the chaplain of Dunskeath had been receiving payments from the Exchequer and after 1494 this fee came to him from the Treasury. The provost had the revenues of the vicarage of Tain, but derived most of his income from the garbal (tithe of grain) of the lands of the touns (farming communities) of Cambuscurrie, Morangie and Tarlogie. By the eve of the Reformation the various benefices attached to the collegiate church had become very lucrative offices.

Royal Pilgrimage

The second half of the 15th century and the period down to the death of King James IV at Flodden in 1513, marked the key day of the church of Tain. James I visited the shrine in the 1450s and began a long tradition of devotion to St Duthac by his successors. There was a long-cherished tradition (though wrong) that James II's queen, Mary of Gueldres, had given birth to the future James III in the saint's sanctuary. James III was to collaborate with the bishop of Ross in giving the pilgrimage centre the formal constitution which it had lacked prior to that date and such conspicuous royal favour went a long way towards further promoting the popularity of the shrine. It was James IV, however, who held St Duthac in especial reverence. A compulsive visitor to the principal shrines in the kingdom, he travelled almost annually to those of St Ninian at Whithorn in Galloway and of St Duthac in Tain, with a great retinue of courtiers and servants in attendance. James prepared carefully for his visits to the shrine, having new robes made to be worn in honour of the saint.

The death of James IV in 1513 represented the passing of an era, for his son, who was an infant at the time of his accession, visited Tain probably on only one occasion. The standard of religious life at the college took a marked downturn and the various chaplainries began to fall into the hands of particular families.

THE STORY OF GLENMORANGIE MALT WHISKY DISTILLING Introduction Chronology of Distilling The Early Days of Distilling Illicit Whisky Distilling STORIES AROUND THE DISTILLERY Introduction The Ancient Burgh The Immortal Walter Scott The White Lady GLENMORANGIE DISTILLERY Introduction Early Days at Glenmorangie Enmeshed in the local rural framework A comfortable little backwater Maltbarns into makeshift barracks New owners and the Roaring Twenties A return to older ways Progress has some advantages THE HISTORY OF THE AREA Introduction Earliest Times The Dark Ages Ross in the Middle Ages The Wars of Independence The Church of St Duthac at Tain The Reformation/Ross of Morangie

Copyright © The Glenmorangie Distillery Company
Webmaster and Credits