Description

James Milne of Edinburgh 1825-9, with additions by John M Aitken, 1895. 2-storey, 3 x 4-bay symmetrical austere classical hall church of rectangular plan; full-height apse centring S elevation, with flanking square plan single storey vestry and (former) session room wings. Droved sandstone ashlar front with droved and polished ashlar details; stugged and snecked sandstone side and rear elevations and additions with droved ashlar margins to windows and corners. Base course, band course at 1st floor, eaves cornice. Projecting cills at windows. Stugged and coped sandstone wallhead stacks flanking apse.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical; regularly fenestrated; full-width ashlar steps accessing 6-panel 2-leaf grained entrance doors with 10-pane fanlights, to architraved openings in each bay at ground. Architraved windows in each bay at 1st floor. Eaves cornice with blocking course above.

W ELEVATION: 4 regularly fenestrated bays, grouped slightly to right.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: apse projecting at centre; curved S wall with round-arched windows flanking centre. Flanking single storey session room and vestry wings.

E ELEVATION: mirrored image of W elevation.

Timber sash and case windows, predominantly 36-pane at ground, 24 and 20-pane at 1st floor, 8 and 12-pane to vestry and session rooms. Stained glass windows depicting Christ to apse. Purple-grey slate piended platform roofs, curved S pitch to apse, profiled gutter at eaves.

INTERIOR: flagged entrance vestibule; flanking 3-centred arches leading to symmetrically disposed gallery stairs with timber handrails. Vertically-boarded timber wainscoting and plaster corniced ceiling. Reeded architraves around entrance doors and 6-panel door to hall. 6-panel flush-beaded timber door to old vestry centred over vestibule.

Vertically-boarded timber wainscoting around hall, plaster cornice and simple strapwork to ceiling. U-plan panelled timber gallery supported on fluted Corinthianesque cast-iron columns. Timber pews with flush-beaded panelling to hall and gallery. 3-centred arch centring S wall, leading to apse containing timber pulpit, communion table, and font, all of 1895. Font of white Caen stone comprises octagonal bowl with carved quatrefoils supported on red marble columns with decorative capitals. Organ by Bryceson Bros & Co of 1871, enlarged 1895, with stencilled pipes and panelled case centring S wall of apse; flanking vertically-boarded timber wainscoting with panelled frieze, pilastered blind arcading above incorporating stained glass windows flanking organ; plaster cornice and coffered dome riding to skylight at centre. 4-panel timber doors accessing vestry and session room.

BOUNDARY WALLS: random rubble wall with stugged ashlar cope to S and E, retaining to W, returned at N and terminated by wrought-iron finialled gate matching that to E.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building, in use as such. This church replaces an earlier building nearer the town centre (now incorporated in the Masonic Hall) and was built between 1825 and 1829 at a cost of ?2881. In 1895 the apse was added by Aitken at the S end with the flanking vestry and session rooms. On completion of this extension, a new pulpit was built and the organ moved its present position. The original contractor was a Robert Stout. An identical (but larger) church was opened in the previous year in Baltasound, Unst, but subsequently reduced in size. Timber for both churches arrived in 1827 on the brig Elrick from New Brunswick, Canada. It was named St Columba?s after union with the United Free church in 1929.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17851953

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.

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