slain at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411
(Link)
Standing near the north wall and towards the east end of the
interior of the church is one of the most remarkable grave slabs
you will find anywhere. Made from an oddly yellowish stone,
one side of this carries an incredibly intricate and detailed
carving of a knight. The knight depicted was Gilbert de Greenlaw,
who died at the Battle of Harlaw, a little to the north of Inverurie,
on 24 July 1411. The stone is his grave slab.
Two things are immediately odd about it. One is the freshness
of the carving, the other that the carving of Greenlaw stops
just above his knees. Both are explained by the slab being reused
for a member of the Forbes family in 1592. This led to it being
cut down in size, but it also led to the side of the stone showing
the knight being protected from the elements, which over the
following centuries would almost certainly have weathered it
to invisibility.
(Link)
Within the ruins is this extraordinary recycled gravestone,
considered by Douglas Simpson to be the only authentic, contemporary
memorial of the Battle of Harlow. Originally the slab commemorated
at Knight, Gilbert de Greenlaw, who was slain at Harlow on 24
July 1411 and whose image, wearing highly detailed armour, is
incised in the yellowish sandstone. The knight is cut off at
the knees. This truncation probably occurred in 1592 when the
stone was re-used by John Forbes of Ardmurdo whose memorial
inscription in Latin runs round the margins of the reverse side
of the stone.