Description

Lewis Shanks, 1877-78; Peter Woodrow, mason contractor. Addition or gallery, 1896, and chancel and session room, Alexander Hislop, 1910. Prominent early gothic rectangular-plan church sited on falling ground. Squared and snecked yellow sandstone with bull-faced dressings, stepped corner buttresses, part string course over basement hall / crypt. Lancet / slender pointed arched windows to nave and choir.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 3-bay gabled elevation with buttresses dividing and hoodmould with labelstops to principal openings. Pointed arch door to centre with steps approaching, chamfered and moulded surround, band course above and 3 stepped windows, Arrowslit in gablehead. Galed stone bellcote at apex with 3 bells and cross finial. Outer aisle bays each with window. Door to basement to left of main entrance

E ELEVATION: gable of chancel (Hislop, 1910) to centre, flanked by recessed and lower transepts projecting to N and S. 3 lancets to nave, with 3 windows to basement session room below. Small windows to flanking 2-stage transpets.

N ELEVATION: 5-bay, with projecting transpet to outer left. Paired lancets to 4 bays of nave each with vesica above, breaking eaves in gabled dormerhead. Bipartite windows to hall below each bay of nave.

Transept containing stair, with stepped arrangement of bipartite window, fanlit door with short flight of steps, and 3 narrow stair lights.

S ELEVATION: on higher ground. Transept to outer right with small, narrow windows. 3 paired lancets to nave and 1 bay blank. Window to basement.

Square lead-paned glazing and fine stained glass (see Interior). Stone coped skews. Grey slates; small triangular roof ventilators. Chamfered angles to gablehead stack.

INTERIOR: full pew seating to aisles and nave. Timber dado. Brick-lined chancel with raised black and white marble flooring and organ case (Hislop, 1910). Octagonal carved timber pulpit (1901) and font (1952); panelled front to communion table. Rear gallery. Stained glass windows: 3 lights to chancel attributed to J Stewart, 1900, depicting Salutation of Mary, Birth and Life of Christ, and Tenets of Christian Faith; 3 gallery windows by J S Melville and J Stewart, 1900, depicting theme of 'Suffer little

Children to come unto me'; N aisle window William Wilson, 1946, depicting St George and Disciple; window to centre of N aisle, Herbert Hendrie, 1931, concerning Water of Life; window in N aisle to W, Gordon Webster, 1956, on theme of Education of Children.

LYCHGATE AND BOUNDARY WALL: gabled teaked lychgate of 1936 with gates and segmental arch, billet moulding to gablehead: bargeboarding; slate roof. Semicircular coped rubble boundary walls to N and S.

Statement of Interest

Listed at Category B particularly on account of its prominent position and fine stained glass windows (Wilson, Webster).

Lewis Shanks was brother of one of the local millowners. The church was opened as a Chapel of Ease on 22 September 1878. In 1887 it was promoted to a quoad sacra parish church, gaining the name 'St Machar's' during the incumbency of Rev Shand before 1939, and in 1968, merging with another congregation to become known as 'St Machar's Ranfurly'

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17839683

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)