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Summary

Description

1845-52; session house added circa 1900. 4-bay plain symmetrical rectangular-plan galleried church with pyramidal capped bellcote to E gable, adjoining lower 3-bay session house set back to E with single linking bay between. Harled over rubble; cement-rendered and lined to W.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: boarded door in bay to centre. Window in each bay to main church block to left. Boarded door set to left of centre with letterbox fanlight to session house to right; window in each remaining bay to right.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: blank wall.

E ELEVATION: blank gabled session house wall offset to right at ground; gablehead stack above. Centred gallery window to gable of main church; rectangular opening to each face of gablehead bellcote above.

W ELEVATION: centred window, set high, to gable; tall round-headed window in each bay flanking.

24-pane timber sash and case windows, fixed leaded round-headed stained glass windows to W end to main church; 12-pane timber sash and case windows to session house. Caithness stone slates to church and to linking bay; purple Welsh slate to session house; stone ridges; stone skews; cement skews to W end; corniced bellcote; corniced (redundant) gablehead stack to session house.

INTERIOR: plain interior with paired cast-iron columns supporting timber-panelled gallery along E end; stone flight in NE angle giving access to gallery; 2-leaf timber panelled door beneath gallery giving access to body of church; timber boarded floor; stained timber pews; plain timber panelled pulpit to W end with staircase to left; oak communion table; portable timber organ; 2 commemorative plaques along N wall.

Statement of Special Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Built after the 1843 Disruption, as an alternative to the Old Kirk, further south of the island in Hollandstoun, it provided a place of worship for those people who supported a break with the established church. The addition of the session house probably occurred at the turn of the century and its incorporation into the body of the church involved the removal of an external stair to the gallery; the area was then roofed. Internally, the joinery was carried out by local men, the stylised floriate motifs to the stained glass windows adding interest to the plain interior. Commemorative plaques adorn the north wall; one is in memory of the Rev. Robert Wilson, the first minister of the church from 1848 to 1877; another commemorates Corporal Ales D W P L Thomson, killed in action in 1944.

References

Bibliography

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