Funding boost for Leuchars church

A £40,000 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will help to fund urgent and essential repairs to roof coverings, external walls, leaded and stained glass windows and to treat wet rot at the A Listed church.

Just last month the team leading the church regeneration programme heard had reached the next round of the competition for Heritage Lottery Funding.

The Rev John Duncan, the minister at St Athernase, welcomed the funding: “It is wonderful news that the National Churches Trust is to give St Athernase such a generous grant and we are pleased that it also acknowledges the importance of the church at a local and national level,” he said.

“I am grateful to the trustees of the trust for enabling future generations to appreciate the historical jewel we have in St Athernase.”

The National Churches Trust is the UK’s church repair and support charity and the broadcaster and journalist Huw Edwards, is its vice-president. He commented: “I’m delighted that the future of St Athernase is being safeguarded by a Cornerstone Grant. This funding will help ensure that this historic church, which has been a place of continuous Christian worship for 900 years, can start a major conservation and renovation project and continue welcoming people of all faiths and none for worship and community activities.”

St Athernase is regarded as one of the best preserved Romanesque churches in Scotland and has been used for worship continuously since it was first built.

The present building is reckoned to date from the mid-12th century. Later significant additions to the building include the distinctive octagonal bell tower, added in 1745, and the nave.