Bendochy has been a place of worship for 900 years
It was Roman Catholic before the Reformation
It is a beautiful site beside the River Isla.
It was last extensively altered in 1885.
There are traditional pews and several features of historic interest.
The church is surrounded by an ancient cemetery, which is owned and maintained by Perth & Kinross Council.
Church of Scotland : Charity Number SC004358
A Fuller History
Bendochy Parish Church is one of the oldest ecclesiastic sites in Scotland, the walls of the present Church being seven hundred years old. Even earlier, in the time of the Culdees, there was a religious centre there. Bendochy had already been a religious site for several centuries when The Cistercian Abbey was founded two miles away in Coupar Angus. When the original Bendochy Church was taken over as the Parish Church by the Cistercian Monks, it would have been a simple rectangular white-washed stone building with plain rectangular windows and an earth floor. The Monks would have forded the River Isla just above the Church when visiting it and Coupar Grange, the home farm of the Abbey of Coupar. This ford was still in use in living memory.
After the Reformation box pews were installed in the Church and a fine oak pulpit placed in the centre of the East wall where it stands today. It is similar to the pulpit in St. Andrews from which John Knox is reputed to have preached…the only two of their kind in Scotland. In 1885 there were extensive alterations and repairs which lasted six months. The original walls were retained, transepts added to the East end, a porch to the entrance and a vestry to the rear. A new belfry was built on the West end. The present belfry and bell, with its outside rope, is still in use, and is rung, by hand, every Sunday as a call to worship.