'Sunset Song church' sold after community bid fails

A church with historic links to the classic Scottish novel Sunset Song has been sold.

Arbuthnott Church in Kincardineshire inspired the setting of the 1932 book and its author, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, is buried in the graveyard.

A community group had hoped it might be possible to take over the building, but the A-listed church was put up for sale on the open market. The Church of Scotland told BBC Scotland News the sale had now been completed, but that it could not provide any further details.

The Arbuthnott Community Development Group expressed disappointment that a way had not been found for it to take the historic building on.

The church has previously said it needed to significantly reduce the properties it owns.

Sunset Song was written in 1932 by Grassic Gibbon, the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell.

It was the first book in the trilogy A Scots Quair and tells the story of Chris Guthrie - a young woman who lives and works on her family farm in the Mearns - the farming areas south of Aberdeen.

The novel is set on the fictional estate of Kinraddie, which Grassic Gibbon based on Arbuthnott, where he lived as a child and where his ashes were buried after his death at the age of 33 in 1935.

The trilogy begins just before World War One and follows Chris from the countryside of her childhood to city life, touching on class, war, religion and female emancipation.

The oldest section of the Arbuthnott church building dates back to the late 1200s.

The Arbuthnott Community Development Group had looked at raising money or applying for funds to take over the church.

The Church of Scotland had said it had been "supportive" of a community sale.

However the option fell through, and it went onto the open market.

The graveyard is owned and maintained by Aberdeenshire Council.

In 1971, a six-episode television adaptation of the novel was the first colour drama made by BBC Scotland and was greeted with huge acclaim.

It was credited with reigniting interest in Grassic Gibbon, and Sunset Song was put on the Higher English syllabus.

In 2016, it was voted Scotland's favourite book in a BBC poll, ahead of the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and Lanark by Alasdair Gray.

In a new introduction published in 2020, the then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote of her love for the novel, which she said was her favourite.