Old Spynie Churchyard lies to the east of the main Elgin to Lossiemouth road.

It was here in 1207/8 that Bishop Brice de Douglas (1203-22) built his cathedral. Its life as a cathedral was rather shortlived and in 1224 the pope gave his permission for the see to be moved to Elgin. Scottish cathedrals at that time were quite modest structures and it may have been embodied in the church which survived until 1735.

 The inscription on the celtic cross above reads :

This cross marks the eastern end of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Spynie. Within which about 1208 Bricius, Bishop of Moray, constituted the first cathedral chapter of the Diocese.

The photo on the left shows what I'd originally taken to be a family crypt but an email from the Moray Burial Ground Research Group is probably nearer the mark, "the general consensus of the MBGRG is that this was in fact used as a temporary mortuary. The rectangular 'window' feature at the rear of the ruin in your image, is a carefully constructed lap ventilator! One can only imagine the situation in the harsh winters of years gone by, when the deceased could be taken to the churchyard, but a grave could not be dug in the deeply frozen ground perhaps! From the size of the 'mortuary' they clearly catered for a fair number of 'pending burials'.

An inscription on the back of the cross (right) notes that "the ancient head of the cross was erected on a new shaft by the parish council of New Spynie in the year 1907.".

Above is the grave of Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), Britain's first Labour Prime Minister, who was born and spent most of his childhood at Seatown near Lossiemouth.