History of the Stewarts | Castles and Buildings
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The church we see today was probably built around 1533, when Alexander Stewart, of nearby Grantully Castle, granted lands to St Andrews Cathedral in exchange for a priest to take charge of the local church. It was a dependant chapel of the parish church of Weem. The church served the Stewart lords at Grandtully. The glorious painted ceiling was probably installed sometime after 1615 when the five articles of Perth permitted private worship.
The painted ceiling at St Mary’s Church is one of only two ecclesiastical surviving painted ceilings from the 1600s in Scotland – the other is at Skelmorlie Aisle at Largs Old Kirk. The decoration includes:
28 roundels of varying shapes and sizes depicting saints, proverbs and the achievements of the Stewart family, a background of fruit, flowers and reclining angels, decorative strap work and interlinking the roundels. iyt also contains what is probably the earliest (or certainly the earliest surviving ) depiction of a turkey.
You can see some of the painted ceilings here http:/ /www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/rcahms/25724/grandtully-st-marys-church/rcahms?inline=true
The church remained in limited use after a new parish church was built in 1806. Its ecclesiastical use finally ended in 1892.
You reach St Mary´s Chapel along a minor single track road that turns south off the A827 some two and a half miles north east of Aberfeldy and just to the south west of Grandtully Castle.
