At the end of the 7th century Nathalan set up his church on a knoll at Tullich where track and river crossings met. He ministered there and a little village grew up, - the civil and religious centre of a wide area for hundreds of years.
The Knights Templar and the Hospitallers (the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem) had land at Tullich before the Earl of Mar became the feudal overlord. Tullich's recorded history goes back to 1275.

Nathalan's church of wattle and daub did not last long and was replaced a number of times. In 1654 Royalist and Roundhead forces clashed at Tullich in a battle noted because it was the last time the long-bow was used in a British battle. The locals were staunchly Roman Catholic and tended to ignore directives of the Kirk Session. Most were staunch Jacobites and took part in the 1715 and the 1745 uprisings against rule from England. Tullich's population in 1696 was 382 adults plus a large number of children.

An early 13th or 14th century church was redesigned in the sixteenth century. The church ruins of today, 25m by 9m still have a 14th century freestone doorway. In more modern times the interior has been used for burials, - usually those of local landed families.
The burial ground round the church is still in use. The original burial ground had a circular wall round it - still in being - in the belief that the Devil would not cross a circle.
Tullich's claim to fame is its symbol stones, a number of pre-Christian origin. There are sixteen stones of varying heights with symbols and / or a cross and a large granite font, hollowed out of a boulder.

Tullich church was used for worship until 1800 when the people of the parishes of Tullich, Glenmuick and Glengairn joined for worship in the 'Centrical Kirk' in Ballater. Unroofed, Tullich church soon became ruinous. The new Ballater became the successor to the old Tullich.