Careston Kirk - Angus, Scotland, UK. - Country Churches on Waymarking.com

The parish of Careston occupies a rural area four miles to the west of Brechin in the county of Angus in Scotland. The area is predominately farming country in the fertile plain of Strathmore.

Sir Alexander Carnegy of nearby Balnamoon, originated the idea of a church in the area due to the distance that the locals had to travel to the parish church in Brechin. The building started in 1636, three years before the parish of Careston came into being, and was completed in 1641. It was a small T-plan building of rubble and slate with a baldacchino (an ornamental structure resembling a canopy), on the partition wall between the aisle and nave, for use as a laird's loft. The only surviving parts of todays building are basically the walls, the window in the north gable of the aisle, and the square window in the east gable.

The first remodelling of the church came in 1808 when two doors in the south wall were built up and a door was formed in the west gable. A window in the east gable was blocked and two lancet windows were added. A cross was erected on the east gable.

In 1905, at the expense of the the inheritors of the church, Mr & Mrs Shaw Adamson, the architect D. Wishart Galloway remodelled extensively the interior, placing the chancel at the east end, and moving the pulpit to the south side. A porch was added on the north side.

The church is no longer in use, but can be still reached from the minor road to the north down a track which leads to a car parking area at the church and the manse which lies adjacent to the west. A graveyard occupies the land predominately to the south and also both east and west ends.