Abbey St Bathans: Church History

The following quotation comes from the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson and published in 1868. This reference was found in volume I, pp 1-2:

"The church is a very ancient structure, with about 140 sittings. A Cistertian nunnery, with the title of a priory, was founded here, toward the close of the 12th century, by Ada, daughter of King William the Lion, and dedicated to St Bathan, Bythen, or Bethan, who is supposed to have been a cousin of Columba and his successor at Iona; and the priory acquired large revenues, and gave name to the parish; but not a vestige of it now exists. About three furlongs east of the church, in a field which still bears the name of Chapelfield, were to be seen, a number of years ago, the foundations of an ancient chapel; and about a mile to the west there existed not long since some remains of the parish church of Strafontain - probably a corruption of Trois Fontaines - united at the Reformation to St Bathan's, and originally an hospital founded by David I."