St Athernase church is a Category A listed building of Romanesque design still used as a place of worship by the Church of Scotland. It is named after an Irish missionary who died among the Picts in 669 according to the Annals of Ulster.
In the churchyard are 5 yews; 1 male and 4 females with 3 of them planted in a close growing group with girths between 130 – 150 cm (SYTHI 2020) and probably having an origin circa 1858 when alteration works were carried out on the church.
The other two are noticeably bigger and the largest has a girth of 400 cm at 100 cm high (SYTHI 2020) implying an age of 400 years and possibly more. The other is of an intermediate size between the biggest and the other three suggesting it was planted between 200 – 400 years ago and possibly when works were carried out in 1770.