Historic Scottish church featured in novel could be saved by locals

The National

26-05-2025

The Church of Scotland is selling Arbuthnott Church in Kincardineshire in an effort to plug a £5.9 million deficit.
The church was the inspiration for the setting of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song and it is also where the author is buried.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon The Church of Scotland said it recognised that the building – the oldest section of which dates back to the late 1200s – as "important and valuable", but that it needed a "significant reduction" in the number of properties it owns.
The Arbuthnott Community Development Group is looking to purchase the building and preserve its cultural legacy, while it could also be used as a local hub for events such as concerts.
Charles Roberts-McIntosh, chairman of the group, told the BBC that he is determined the building and Gibbon's legacy are protected.
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He said: "We will look to raise money or apply for funds.
"People are still interested in this history and rural life - and tourists love Scottish culture.
"The value culturally is incalculable. Sunset Song endures because it is a wonderful piece of literature."
Alan Riach, National contributor and professor of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, said he was "appalled" at the news of the church's closure.
He told the BBC: "This is one of the great places of pilgrimage in literary Scotland.
"It's not only fixed forever in our cultural history as an essential co-ordinate point in the biography of one of our greatest writers, but it's also a key reference point in his greatest novel."
Sunset Song was written in 1932 by Grassic Gibbon, the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell, and is the first novel in the trilogy A Scots Quair.
It follows the story of a young woman growing up before and during the First World War and draws on the themes of class, war, religion and female emancipation.
READ MORE: The life and death of Scottish author Lewis Grassic Gibbon
The kirk, named Kinraddie Church in the novel, is a significant location in the story.
Grassic Gibbon is buried in the graveyard, and the inscription on his headstone reads: "for I will give you the morning star'.
There is also a sculpture inside the church of the great knight of yesteryear, which features at the start of Sunset Song.
A statement from the Church of Scotland said: "We believe a significant reduction in the number of buildings we own is necessary in order to deliver sustainable and realistic new expressions of ministry and church and to ensure all of our buildings are suitable for the needs of mission in the 21st century.
"As part of the process, the local presbytery has taken the decision to release Arbuthnott Church.
"There are no set dates as yet, but under the current mission plan, Arbuthnott Church would be released by the end of 2025."