Let us suppose for a moment that that did happen. Where might he have made his foundation. Not, I think on the site of the ruined medieval church, but rather about half a mile to the north where there still stands the Midmar recumbent stone circle. This is where the centre of habitation and activity would have been in that area, and the speculation is that that is where Nidan would have made his foundation. It is in fact in the graveyard of the modern church which is post Reformation, built in 1797. At some time after its foundation the original church was replaced by what is now the ruined medieval church down the hill where it became part of a Norman settlement with Cunningar Motte and then in the 18th century it was moved up the hill again to its present site. In medieval times, the church was definitely dedicated to St Nidan. There is another dedication to St Nidan at the former church at the Doune of Invernochty, Strathdon, and this is another case where the dedications to St Nidan at these two churches are the only evidence of the saint in our area.

St Colm – Site of St Colm’s Well (Grid Ref NO 494 881)

As I have said before, sometimes the most compelling evidence of a saint’s presence here is his name on a map, and even then it is really only evidence of a folklore tradition. In the case of St Colm, what we have is a well near the summit of Gannoch on the Firmounth road between Tarfside and Glentanar which has been named St Colm’s Well for centuries, and which was marked in the 19th century by Sir William Cunliffe Brookes, the owner of Glentanar Estate by a pink granite stone enigmatically inscribed “Well Beloved” and with a cross in the middle. So who was St Colm? Fenton Wyness places St Colm as a follower of St Ninian and thinks that he came to Deeside in the 5th century. This view is discredited now and some writers confuse him with St Columba, with whom he shares his name. Other writers associate St Colm with St Drostan and St Fergus, and there are certainly a number of dedications to St Colm in Buchan, notably at Oyne, Daviot and Monymusk. However our interest in him is generated by the original dedication to him at Birse Kirk, which became obscured and forgotten when the dedication was replaced in medieval times by one to St Michael. However, the well at Gannoch remained a place of pilgrimage for many years, and if indeed the Firmounth was the track on which St Colm travelled to Deeside, then the first place he would come to in Deeside would have been Birse, and is a likely place for him to have made a foundation.