Monigaff Parish Church, Minnigaff, Dumfries and Galloway

Description

William Burn, 1836. Gothic church. Rectangular-plan; 5-bay nave; 3-stage entrance tower to W. Whinstone rubble; red sandstone ashlar dressings. Base course. Moulded eaves cornice and courses. Smooth margin drafts and stugged rybats. Set-off buttresses, with water-leaf-finialled gabletted pinnacles; angle buttresses to all corners. Pointed-arched windows with slender Y-tracery and transoms. Double-leaf panelled doors. Leaded diamond-pane glazing. Graded grey slates. Some original rainwater goods.

W ELEVATION: tower at centre. Square stair turrets adjoining to left and right; cornice and blocking course to gable above.

TOWER: hoodmoulded, moulded, deeply chamfered, pointed-arched door surround, with nook-shafts, to W. Hoodmoulded windows at 2nd stage to N, W and S, blind and truncated by adjoining stair turrets to N and S; nave adjointed to E. Windows, with nook-shafts and colonnette-mullions, 3-light intersecting tracery, at 3rd stage, all blind except lower part of window to W; string course stepped over windows at hoodmould. Clasping buttresses, octagonal above 1st stage, rising to pinnacles. Parapet, gabled at centre to each face. Double course between stages and below parapet; upper course between 2nd and 3rd stages stepped over moulded square panel to each face.

Stair turrets flanking 1st stage to N and S, with cornice and blocking course; each with 2 vertically-placed blind round-headed lancets to W and window to outer returns; small square window below to S return.

N ELEVATION: 5-bay; windows divided by buttresses. Porch in centre bay, truncating window; crenellated parapet, gabled over door to N, with shield and garland motif in gablehead; cornice raised over door; moulded, 4-centre-arched door; small lancets to E and W returns; diagonal buttresses to angles.

S ELEVATION: 5-bay; windows divided by buttresses.

E ELEVATION: ogee-hoodmoulded, four-centred-arched window, with 5-light panel tracery and transom. Vestry advanced below window, canted to E; depressed-arched doors to N and S returns; 2-light 4-centre-arched windows to canted bay at centre; lancets to left and right; cornice and blocking course; diagonal buttresses to angles. Cornice and blocking course to gable, with corniced octagonal die built into apex.

INTERIOR: 2 aisles to 5-bay nave. Boarded horseshoe gallery to 3 sides on columns. Painted plaster walls and boarded dadoes. 4-centre-arched doors with leaded glazing to upper panels. Plaster rib-vaulted ceiling to nave. Marble mural tablets. Timber pews.

Dentil-corniced, double-leaf door from tower porch to vestibule. Vestibule slightly advanced into nave to W; doors on returns. Organ to W in gallery, built by Bryceson and Co, London, installed 1872. Clock built into gallery to W.

Blind arcaded octagonal pulpit, with steps from left. Timber communion table, lectern and stone font. Dentil-corniced, panelled and quatrefoiled screen behind. Doors to vestry, set in angled, corniced panels, flanking screen. Door to porch at centre to N. Plaster hoodmould to E window.

STAINED GLASS: window to E in memory of Patrick Stewart (died 1865). Stained glass to N and S walls in panels below transom. Window in bay to right of centre of N in memory of Randolph Stewart, 9th Earl of Galloway (died 1873). S wall: window to left in memory of Charlotte Nugent-Dunbar (died 1951); window to left of centre in memory of James MacKie, 1868; window at centre by A Ballantine and Son, Edinburgh, 1910; similarly detailed windows to right of centre and to right. Variety of geometric and diamond-pane glazing, some coloured and some etched, with coloured margins, to remaining windows and above transoms.

GRAVEYARD: many fine 18th and 19th cnetury monuments.

The Old Parish Church (see separate listing) is situated in the Graveyard to the S. The Heron Monument (see separate listing) is situated in the Graveyard to the W.

GRAVEYARD WALLS: low rubble wall with granite saddleback coping. Cast-iron fleur-de-lis railings to N and W; double-leaf spearhead gates to W and S.

TWO CROSS SLABS: pillar-cross, sculptured in relief on 3 faces. Pillar, sculptured partly in relief and partly incised on one face.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such; Church of Scotland. Monigaff Parish Church was built at a cost of $1800 and could accommodate 850.

It was repaired in 1893 and renovated in 1929. Electric lighting and the electric organ blower were installed by John McKie of Bargaly in 1948 in memory of the 2nd World War. Monigaff was united with Bargrennan on 9 May 1962.

The design is very close to Burn's earlier church in Stenton, East Lothian (1829) and his parish church in Thurso.

The Old Parish Church is listed separately. The Heron Monument is listed separately under Monigaff Parish Church Graveyard, Heron Monument.

B Group with Heron Monument; Old Parish Church.

The CROSS SLABS were SCHEDULED but were removed to Monigaff Parish Church from the Old Parish Church in 1996 to remove them from erosion by weather, and are not Scheduled in their current location.

The pillar-cross was found serving as a lintel in the Old Market-house of Minnigaff when it was demolished in circa 1880. The pillar was found serving as a doorstep to the Old Church in circa 1880.

External Links

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