Description

T-plan church built 1751, tall round tower probably late
16th-17th century origin, top part later rebuilt; church
interior early 19th century.
Symmetrical T-plan church, painted rubble with polished
margins. S elevation with round tower to centre flanked by 2
lancet windows with timber Y-tracery.
To E and W gables single-storey piend-roofed projecting
porches, single lancet to gable above. N jamb round-arched
window. Piended slate roofs to church. Tower painted rough
rubble. Pointed-arched door at foot. 2 small blocked
round-arched roll-moulded windows are visible above door
indicating a late 16th-mid 17th-century date for the tower.
Top 1/4 of tower seems to have been rebuilt in 19th-century
from which time date the louvred openings and fish-scale
slate conical roof with iron weathervane-finial.
Interior: well preserved early 19th-century interior.
Panel-fronted gallery to 3 sides supported on cast-iron
columns. Box pews in 1822 layout. Pulpit to centre of S wall
flanked by stained-glass lancets. Behind pulpit pilastered
corniced 'reredos' doorpiece leads down to tower.
Churchyard: rubble-walled coped churchyard with some good
18th and early 19th century gravestones. Tomb of covenanting
martyr William Graham d. 1682.

Statement of Interest

Round towers such as this are extremely rare, the only

comparable example in SW Scotland being that at Portpatrick

Parish Church (1629) in Wigtownshire which may have served a

dual function as navigational beacon and belfry. The old bell

at Crossmichael church is dated 1611 which may give an

approximate date for the tower. The interior also is

unusually well preserved. The Church forms an A group with

the Gordon of Greenlaw memorial in the churchyard.

Ecclesiastical building in use as such.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Round Tower and St Michael's Cross, Crossmichael Parish Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17570920

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings