A painting depicting one of the most famous episodes in the history of a Mearns town is set to be restored to its former glory.

Volunteers at an Aberdeenshire church are raising funds to pay for the £2,000 restoration of the 1865 work by George Washington Brownlow, Baptism from a Stonehaven Jail.

The painting, which hangs in the town’s Tollbooth museum, is owned by the Bishop of Brechin, the Rev John Mantle.

It depicts a turbulent time in the history of the Scottish Episcopal Church, following the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and shows a clergyman behind bars baptising a bairn.

George Masson, a member of St Ternan’s Episcopal Church, Muchalls, is now leading a fundraising drive to raise the money needed to pay a professional to conserve the piece.

• Full story at the Aberdeen Press & Journal.

• Filed under Arts, North East + Northern Isles, Scottish Christian News Monitor, Scottish Episcopal Church.