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Church Micro 11328...Banchory Devenick Traditional Cache

Hidden : 10/21/2017
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Banchory Devenick Church occupies an old Christian site, which has had at least one previous church, possibly two. the present church was built in the 1820s to replace the 17th century church on the site. In his book, Hay gives the date of the previous church as 1642, which itself replaced a much earlier ecclesiastical building. It is also claimed that St Devenick, an early Christian missionary, was buried on this site or nearby in 887.


The church lies alongside the busy B9077 into Aberdeen, which is a mile or so to the east. The church is surrounded by an extensive graveyard and later cemetery to the south and east. The church itself is built on a prominent knoll or rise, common in early Christian sites.

Exterior

The church is rectangular on plan and with a relatively simple layout including a small west porch and north vestry. It has harled rubble walls with granite detailing stones including a base course, corner (quoin) strips and window and door surrounds. The double pitch roof is slated. 

The west gable has a small gabled porch with a rectangular door in the north and south faces and a narrow pointed-arch (lancet) window in the west face. Above the porch is a wide pointed-arch window with simple tracery and clear glass. On the apex of the gable is a rectangular bellcote with a ball finial and tall metal weather vane. 

The south elevation has four equal-sized pointed-arch windows with Y-tracery and multiple panes of clear glass. The east gable has a single very large pointed-arch window with intersecting tracery and glass panes lightly stained purple. The north elevation has a small hipped-roof extension used as a store. There is a side door with small window above that leads into the nave and is the main entrance into the church used today. There is also a relatively small pointed-arch window at the west and east ends of the north elevation, which is on the edge of a steep drop to the busy road below.

Interior

The interior of the church is plain and open, with the sanctuary at the east end and two rows of wooden pews in the nave. The walls are plastered and painted and the wooden ceiling is rib vaulted with carved bosses. Elaborate electric light fittings hang from the ceiling on long chains. 

The sanctuary occupies the entire east end and is raised up from the nave by two steps. The large east window is centrally positioned and a thick blue curtain with a gold cross covers the lower half of the window. The wooden pulpit stands in the south-east corner and has intersecting traceried panels. The communion table stands in the centre of the sanctuary and has delicately-carved grapes and vines as well as traceried panels. There is also a wooden lectern and font, as well as wooden communion rails. In the north-east corner is a small pipe organ made by Positive Organ Co. Ltd. of London.

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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.co.uk.

See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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Background Photo © Andrew Wood (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

ObG

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)