The first church on the site of St Machar’s Cathedral was probably built around 580. The story is that it was founded by St Machar, who was sent to eastern Scotland by St Columba on Iona, a tiny island in the west. The story was written in the Lives of the Scottish Saints which dates from the 1390s. There may be some truth in it: Columba was certainly a historical person, but we do not know more.
There is no trace of that original church; there is a Pictish cross on the wall above the vestry inside the church, which, to judge by its design, dates from around 600. It may have been part of the original church; but it may not, although it was certainly found nearby.
The church became a Cathedral in the 1330s when the seat of the Bishop was transferred from Mortlach, near Dufftown, to Old Aberdeen under David I (reigned 1124–53). A new building was erected and was in use by 1165.
In the late 1200s the Cathedral had to undergo extensive restoration under Bishop Cheyne (1282–1328). Unfortunately in 1336 the troops of Edward III of England sacked Aberdeen, and it is thought that the nave of the church suffered badly.
The rebuilding began in the 1380s with the two fortified towers at the west end of the church. The nave (the interior we can see today) was erected 1425–50. With its round pillars and flat ceiling it is a most unusual building for its period, but it can be understood as an early Renaissance church, maybe the first in Britain, inspired not by the great cathedrals of England and northern France, but by churches in Rome. The bishops of Aberdeen seem to have been regular visitors to Rome.
The most distinguished of the bishops was undoubtedly William Elphinstone (1431–1514), who was bishop of Aberdeen from 1483. He studied in Glasgow and Paris, and became a lecturer in the University of Orléans, before returning to Scotland. He became a royal diplomat leading delegations to Louis XI of France, Edward IV of England, and Maximilian the Holy Roman Emperor. He was also appointed Chancellor of Scotland. Within Scotland his greatest achievements were the creation of the University of Aberdeen—he travelled to Rome in 1494, and in February 1495 obtained the Bull from Pope Alexander VI founding the University. He was instrumental in setting up the first Scottish printing press in Edinburgh, and the first book was the Aberdeen Breviary, a service book which standardised the order of worship in Scotland. He was one of only two to vote against James IV’s invasion of England in 1513 which led to the disastrous Battle of Flodden in that year.
The ceiling (the most important feature of the Cathedral) was commissioned by Bishop Gavin Dunbar after a visit to Rome in 1518; the 48 heraldic shields represent the monarchs of Europe down the north side, the King of Scots and his council down the south, and the church down the middle with the procession led by Leo X who was then Pope. It asserts the unity of western Christendom led by the church, and supported by the secular powers. It can be seen as a rejection of the reforming views of Martin Luther whose protests about the state of the church began in 1517.
After the Scottish Reformation in 1560 when the church in Scotland broke from Rome, most of the land and property which had maintained the clergy and the fabric of the Cathedral were stolen by the supporters of the new government. The building deteriorated, and in 1688 the central tower collapsed, and destroyed the transepts with it; the remains of the transepts can be seen outside to the east of the church. The arch at the east end was built up, and St Machar’s became a rectangular church.
After another revolution in 1689, the Church of Scotland was established as Presbyterian (i.e. ruled by Presbyteries), and rule by bishops was abolished. St Machar’s lost its status as a cathedral and became a parish church within the Church of Scotland. (The name ‘cathedral’ is only a courtesy title.) The revolution also created a means of financing the church, and this stopped the physical decline of the building. At some unknown date the interior was remodelled: galleries were created, and the pulpit was moved to the centre of the church.
In the 1800s, St Machar’s, in common with many other churches, began to recreate something of the church of the middle ages: there were major restorations in the 1830s when the galleries were removed, the 1860s, and the 1920s. The first stained-glass window (in the west end) was installed in 1870. Five pre-Raphaelite widows designed by Daniel Cottier followed. In the twentieth century more windows designed by Douglas Stachan were installed just before and after the war of 1914–18. The culmination was the superb east window of 1953. As well as stained glass an organ was commission from Henry Willis, the great English organ builder, and installed in 1890; it is the organ we can see today. Bells were restored in the 1980s.
The process of restoration and renewal never ends: there were major works in the 1980s and again in 2018–21, when the roof was reslated, the ceiling restored, and new seating installed. Old buildings need constant maintenance so that a congregation can worship, and visitors can study and admire our architectural and artistic heritage. St Machar’s is the oldest building in use in Aberdeen; it is also an inspiring place in which to worship God.
P.S. The most famous story about St Machar’s is only a story: in 1305 the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace, having been captured by Edward I of England, was hung, drawn and quartered in London. His dismembered body was sent to different parts of Scotland. Whether his left arm was interred within the walls of St. Machar’s it is not known—but, if it was, it was not in the walls of the present church which had not been built in 1305.
