Church architecture in Scotland incorporates all church building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the earliest Christian structures in the sixth century until the present day. The early Christian churches for which there is evidence are basic masonry-built constructions on the west coast and islands. As Christianity spread, local churches tended to remain much simpler than their English counterparts. By the eighth century more sophisticated
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
block-built buildings began to be constructed. From the eleventh century, there were larger and more ornate Romanesque buildings, as with Dunfermline Abbey and St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney. From the twelfth century the introduction of new monastic orders led to a boom in ecclesiastical building, often using English and Continental forms. From the thirteenth century elements of the European
Gothic style
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
began to appear in Scotland, culminating in buildings such as Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilt Melrose Abbey. Renaissance influences can be seen in a move to a low-massive style that was probably influenced by contacts with Italy and the Netherlands.
From the mid-sixteenth century the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
revolutionised church architecture in Scotland. It resulted in a rejection of the elaborate ornamentation of existing churches. New churches were produced in a plain style, often with a T-plan that emphasised the pulpit and preaching. This style was adopted by both
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
and
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
wings of the Scottish Kirk, but there were some attempts to introduce Baroque elements into church building after the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
. In the eighteenth century the influence of James Gibbs led to churches that employed classical elements, with a
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
ed rectangular plan and often with a steeple. This classicism continued into the early nineteenth century, but became increasingly controversial and began to be rejected for a version of the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
, which flourished into the early twentieth century. Between the world wars, a form of Neo-Romanesque became the norm for new churches. In the second half of the twentieth century new churches were highly influenced by
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
, resulting in rectangular and irregularly shaped buildings, built in new materials, although many of these were later demolished. As the level of new building reduced from the 1970s there was a move to functional and unambitious new churches, but in the 1980s there was a move back to more striking and original designs.
Middle Ages
Early churches
The introduction of Christianity into Scotland from Ireland from the sixth century led to the construction of the first churches. These may originally have been wooden, like that excavated at
Whithorn
Whithorn ( ʍɪthorn 'HWIT-horn'; ''Taigh Mhàrtainn'' in Gaelic), is a royal burgh in the historic county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian ...
, but most of those for which evidence survives from this era are basic masonry-built churches, beginning on the west coast and islands and spreading south and east.I. Maxwell, ''A History of Scotland's Masonry Construction'' in P. Wilson, ed., ''Building with Scottish Stone'' (Edinburgh: Arcamedia, 2005), , pp. 22–3. Early chapels tended to have square-ended converging walls, similar to Irish chapels of this period.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 8. Medieval parish church architecture in Scotland was typically much less elaborate than in England, with many churches remaining simple oblongs, without
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
s and
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
s, and often without towers. In the Highlands they were often even simpler, many built of rubble masonry and sometimes indistinguishable from the outside from houses or farm buildings.I. D. Whyte, K. A. Whyte, ''The Changing Scottish Landscape, 1500–1800'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 1991), , p. 117.
Monasteries also differed significantly from those on the continent, and were often an isolated collection of wooden huts surrounded by a wall.C. Evans, "The Celtic Church in Anglo-Saxon times", in J. D. Woods, D. A. E. Pelteret, ''The Anglo-Saxons, synthesis and achievement'' (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1985), , pp. 77–89. At
Eileach an Naoimh
Eileach an Naoimh, also known as Holy Isle, is an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It is the southernmost of the Garvellachs archipelago and lies in the Firth of Lorne between Mull and Argyll. The name i ...
in the
Inner Hebrides
The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...
there are huts, a chapel, refectory, guest house, barns and other buildings. Most of these were of timber and
wattle
Wattle or wattles may refer to:
Plants
*''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa
**''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia
**Black wattle, c ...
construction and probably thatched with heather and turves. They were later rebuilt in stone, with underground cells and circular "beehive" huts like those used in Ireland. Similar sites have been excavated on Bute, Orkney and Shetland. From the eighth century more sophisticated buildings emerged. The development of early
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
masonry produced block-built stone buildings, like the eleventh century
round tower
A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with curtain walls. Castle towers can have a variety of different shapes and ful ...
Dunblane Cathedral
Dunblane Cathedral is the larger of the two Church of Scotland parish churches serving Dunblane, near the city of Stirling, in central Scotland.
The lower half of the tower is pre- Romanesque from the 11th century, and was originally free-standi ...
After the eleventh century, as masonry techniques advanced, ashlar blocks became more rectangular, resulting in more stable walls that could incorporate refined architectural moulding and detailing that can be seen in
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
ling,
buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
ing,
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
s and
arch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...
ing. At the same time there was increasing influence from English and continental European designs, known as Romanesque. The Romanesque style had its origins in Roman building techniques and early churches in the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 10. and was characterised by massive reinforced walls and round arches that could bear the weight of rounded
barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
roofs. The introduction of this style to Scotland is associated with the ecclesiastical reforms that began in the reign of
Máel Coluim III
Malcolm III ( mga, Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, label=Medieval Gaelic; gd, Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh; died 13 November 1093) was King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" ("ceann mòr", Gaelic, literally "big head" ...
(r. 1058–93), bringing continental ideas of monasticism and church organisation to the country. The oldest Romanesque church in Scotland is probably the small chapel built for Máel Coluim's wife
Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...
on
Castle Rock, Edinburgh
Castle Rock ( gd, Creag a' Chaisteil, IPA: kʰʲɾʲekˈaˈxaʃtʰʲɪl is a volcanic plug in the middle of Edinburgh upon which Edinburgh Castle sits. The rock is estimated to have formed some 350 million years ago during the early Carbonifer ...
, with a vaulted semi-circular
apse
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...
. In the twelfth century a number of new parish churches were built by lords on their land. They were often small aisless buildings with two or three connected cells, each of diminishing size, ending in a rounded apse. One of the best preserved is at Dalmeny in Lothian.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 11.St. Regulus Chapel at St. Andrews dates from around 1150 and was probably built as a
reliquary
A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...
church. Only the aisleless choir and tall square tower survive. Its detailing derives from work on a church at
Wharram-le-Street
Wharram-le-Street is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wharram, in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Until the 1974 local government reorganisation Wharram-le-Street was part of the East Riding of Yorkshir ...
in England and it may have been carried out by the same Yorkshire masons.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 12. The first monastic establishment built in the Romanesque style was Dunfermline Abbey, begun at the behest of Queen Margaret about 1074. An existing small chapel was expanded with a square choir and rounded apse. About fifty years later it was replaced by a grander cruciform church of which only the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
now survives.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 13. The
chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* ''Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...
pattern in the detailing on the piers was modelled on that at
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...
. Similarly, St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney, begun in 1137, may have employed masons who had worked at Durham, with which it shares a similar pattern of great round arches based on thick cylindrical pillars.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 12–14. The arrival of the new monastic orders in Scotland from the twelfth century led to a boom in ecclesiastical building using English and continental forms, including abbeys at Kelso, Holyrood,
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
and
Jedburgh
Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in su ...
, one of the most complete Romanesque buildings to survive.A. Macquarrie, ''Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation'' (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), , p. 122.
Gothic
The style that developed from the Romanesque, originating in twelfth-century France, is now known as
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
flying buttress
The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...
es. It was brought to Britain by the
Cistercians
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
, whose abbeys retained thick walls, but pierced them with
lancet arch
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...
es with slender pointed arches. This style became characteristic of the early Gothic in Britain and can be seen at
Dundrennan Abbey
Dundrennan Abbey, in Dundrennan, Scotland, near to Kirkcudbright, was a Cistercian monastery in the Romanesque architectural style, established in 1142 by Fergus of Galloway, King David I of Scotland (1124–53), and monks from Rievaulx Abbey. Th ...
, begun around 1142, which resembles religious foundations in northern England.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 15–16. The style can also be seen in the East end of Elgin Cathedral, which incorporated typical European Gothic mouldings and tracery.
A more elaborate style known as decorated Gothic, applying ornamentation to vaults and pillars, particularly using curved motifs, began to be adopted in the thirteenth century and was characteristic of Scottish church building in the fourteenth century. It was used at
Dunblane Cathedral
Dunblane Cathedral is the larger of the two Church of Scotland parish churches serving Dunblane, near the city of Stirling, in central Scotland.
The lower half of the tower is pre- Romanesque from the 11th century, and was originally free-standi ...
, built in the thirteenth century, particularly to decorate the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and East end. At
Fortrose
Fortrose (; gd, A' Chananaich, sco, Chainry) is a town and former royal burgh in Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom. It is on the Moray Firth, about north-east of Inverness. The burgh is a popular location for trying to spot bottlenose dolp ...
in the Highlands the elaborate decoration of this style is still visible in the south aisle. One of the finest examples is
Sweetheart Abbey
The Abbey of Dulce Cor, better known as Sweetheart Abbey ( Gaelic: ''An Abaid Ur''), was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1275 in what is now the village of New Abbey, in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, ...
near
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...
, a Cistercian monastery, named after the burial of
John de Balliol
John Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as ''Toom Tabard'' (meaning "empty coat" – coat of arms), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...
's heart alongside the body of his wife.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 32 and 49. The period of the Wars of Independence (1296–1357) saw a large number of ecclesiastical buildings ruined, including Melrose and
Jedburgh
Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in su ...
Abbeys. Church building was largely confined to the parish churches in the relatively secure areas like Fife, as at St. Monans, originally a church of the Dominican friars.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 32.
In the fifteenth century, continental builders are known to have been working in Scotland. French master-mason John Morrow was employed at the building of Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilding of Melrose Abbey, both considered fine examples of Gothic architecture.J. Wormald, ''Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 57–9. Compared with after the Reformation, the interiors of churches were often elaborate, with highly decorated sacrament houses, like the ones surviving at
Deskford
Deskford (Scottish Gaelic: ''Deasgard'') is a parish and a small settlement in Moray, Scotland, formerly in Banffshire.
A number of significant historical and archaeological remains have been found in the area, notably the remains of a carnyx ...
and Kinkell. The carvings at Rosslyn Chapel, depicting the progression of the seven deadly sins, were created in the mid-fifteenth century. They are considered some of the finest in the Gothic style. Late Medieval Scottish churches also often contained elaborate burial monuments, like the Douglas tombs in the town of
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
*Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...
.
Renaissance
The impact of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
on ecclesiastical architecture can be seen in the re-adoption of low-massive church building with round arches and pillars, in contrast to the
perpendicular Gothic
Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...
style that was particularly dominant in England in the late Medieval era. The adoption of the low-massive style may have been influenced by close contacts with Rome and the Netherlands, and was perhaps a conscious reaction against English forms in favour of continental ones. It can be seen in the nave of Dunkeld Cathedral, begun in 1406, the facade of St Mary's, Haddington from the 1460s and in the chapel of Bishop Elphinstone's
Kings College, Aberdeen
King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Universi ...
(1500–09).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , pp. 3–4. About forty collegiate churches were established in Scotland in late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Many, like
Trinity College, Edinburgh
Trinity College Kirk was a Scottish monarchy, royal collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. The kirk and its adjacent almshouse, Trinity Hospital, were founded in 1460 by Mary of Gueldres in memory of her husband, King James II of Scotl ...
, showed a combination of Gothic and Renaissance styles.A. Thomas, "The Renaissance", in T. M. Devine and J. Wormald, eds, ''The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), , p. 190. The early sixteenth century saw crown steeples built on churches with royal connections, symbolising imperial monarchy, as at St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.A. Thomas, "The Renaissance", in T. M. Devine and J. Wormald, eds, ''The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), , p. 188.
Early modern era
Reformation
From about 1560, the Reformation revolutionised church architecture in Scotland. Calvinists rejected ornamentation in places of worship. With no need for elaborate buildings divided up by ritual there was widespread destruction of Medieval church furnishings, ornaments and decoration. There was a need to adapt old buildings and build new churches suitable for reformed services, particularly by putting the pulpit and preaching at the centre of worship.
Many of the earliest buildings were simple gabled rectangles, a style that continued to be built into the seventeenth century. Examples include
Dunnottar Castle
Dunnottar Castle ( gd, Dùn Fhoithear, "fort on the shelving slope") is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, about south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 1 ...
in the 1580s,
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
(1591) and
Durness
Durness ( gd, Diùranais) is a village and civil parish in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north coast of the country in the traditional county of Sutherland, around north of Inverness. The area is remote, and the parish is ...
(1619),A. Spicer, "Architecture", in A. Pettegree, ed., ''The Reformation World'' (London: Routledge, 2000), , p. 517. These new buildings often had windows on the south wall and none on the north, which became a unique feature of Reformation kirks. There were continuities with pre-Reformation materials, with some churches using rubble, as at
Kemback
Kemback is a village and parish in Fife, Scotland, located east of Cupar. The present village was developed in the 19th century to house those working the flax mills on the nearby Ceres Burn. From 1681 the minister for the parish was Alexander Ed ...
in Fife (1582). Others employed stone and a few added wooden steeples, as at
Burntisland
Burntisland ( , sco, also Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. It was previously known as Wester Kingho ...
(1592). The church of Greyfriars, Edinburgh, built between 1602 and 1620, used a rectangular layout with a largely Gothic form, but that at
Dirleton
Dirleton is a village and civil parish in East Lothian, Scotland approximately east of Edinburgh on the A198. It contains . Dirleton lies between North Berwick (east), Gullane (west), Fenton Barns (south) and the Yellowcraigs nature reserve, ...
(1612), had a more sophisticated classical style.
A variation of the rectangular church that developed in post-Reformation Scotland was the "T"-shaped plan, often used when adapting existing churches, which allowed the maximum number of parishioners to be near the pulpit. They can be seen at Kemback and Prestonpans after 1595. It continued to be used into the seventeenth century as at
Weem
WEEM-FM (91.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a student-run high school radio station of Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana. It broadcasts in the Contemporary hit radio, CHR music format. The station is owned by South Madison Community S ...
(1600), Anstruther Easter, Fife (1634–44) and New Cumnock (1657). In the seventeenth century a Greek cross plan was used for churches such as Cawdor (1619) and Fenwick (1643). In most of these cases one arm of the cross would have been closed off as a laird's aisle, meaning that they were in effect "T"-plan churches. Larger churches often had a steeple, as at Tron Kirk, Edinburgh (1636–47).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 141.
Restoration
By the later seventeenth century both the Presbyterian and episcopalian wings of the church had adopted the modestly sized and plain form of churches that had emerged after the Reformation. Most had a centralised plan with two or three arms, in a rectangular or T-planned arrangement. Steeples continued to be a major feature, either centrally on the long axis, or on an end gable, in as had been the case in pre-Reformation churches. As a result, there was little of the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
extravagance in church building seen on the Continent and England.J. Gifford, ''William Adam 1689–1748'' (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing/RIAS, 1989), , pp. 62–7. Some minor innovations may indicate a move back toward episcopacy in the Restoration era. Lauder Church was built by Sir William Bruce in 1673 for the
Duke of Lauderdale
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...
, who championed the bishops in the reign of Charles II and the Gothic windows of which may have emphasised antiquity, but its basic Greek cross plan remained within the common framework of new churches. The drive to episcopalian forms of worship may have resulted in more linear patterns, including rectangular plans with the pulpit on the end opposite the entrance. The major exceptions to the standard pattern are in the work of James Smith, who had become a
Holyrood Abbey
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Ref ...
undertaken for
James VII
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
in 1687, which was outfitted in an elaborate style. In 1691 Smith designed the mausoleum of Sir
George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh
Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh (1636 – May 8, 1691) was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate, essayist and legal writer.
Early life
Mackenzie, who was born in Dundee, was the son of Sir Simon Mackenzie of Lochslin (died c. 1666) and Elizab ...
Latin Cross
A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...
form, increasingly popular in Counter Reformation Catholicism, was also used, as in Smith's Canongate Kirk (1688–90), but here it never saw episcopal service as the Presbyterian revolution of 1689–90 occurred before it was completed and the chancel was blocked up, making it, in effect, a T-plan.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 143.
Eighteenth-century Neo-Classicism
In the eighteenth century established patterns continued, with T-shaped churches with steeples on the long side, as at New Church,
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...
(1724–27), and
Newbattle
Newbattle (from Neubotle, i.e. new dwelling) is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, in the ancient Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Andrews, about seven miles from Edinburgh. There was an abbey there founded about 1140, being the second of th ...
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
Parish Church (1729–32), was a Greek cross plan inscribed in a circle, while John Douglas's Killin Church (1744) was octagonal. Scots-born architect James Gibbs was highly influential on British ecclesiastical architecture. He introduced a consciously antique style in his rebuilding of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, with a massive, steepled
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
and rectangular, side-aisled plan. Similar patterns in Scotland can be seen at
St Andrew's in the Square
St Andrew's in the Square is an 18th-century category-A-listed former church in Glasgow, Scotland, considered one of the finest classical churches in Scotland, and now Glasgow's Centre for Scottish Culture, promoting Scottish music, song and dan ...
(1737–59), designed by Allan Dreghorn and built by the master mason Mungo Nasmyth, and at the smaller Donibristle Chapel (completed 1731), designed by Alexander McGill. Gibbs' own design for St. Nicholas West, Aberdeen (1752–55), had the same rectangular plan, with a nave-and-aisles, barrel-vaulted layout with superimposed pedimented front. After the Toleration Act of 1712, episcopalians began building a limited number of new chapels including Alexander Jaffray's St Paul's chapel in Aberdeen (1721), the meeting house designed by McGill in Montrose, an Edinburgh chapel opened in 1722 and
St Andrew's-by-the-Green
St Andrew's-by-the-Green is an 18th-century category-A-listed former church in Glasgow, Scotland, and the first Episcopal church built in the city. It is situated on the corner of Turnbull Street and Greendyke Street, overlooking Glasgow Green, ...
in Glasgow (1750–52), which adopted a simpler version of Gibbs'
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
ed rectangular plan.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , pp. 143–4.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, Scotland's rapidly expanding economy and population resulted in the laying out of numerous
new towns
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
and remodelled settlements, resulting in a need for new churches to support the local residents. These included St Andrew's and St George's West Church, George Street, in the New Town of Edinburgh, designed by Andrew Frazer (1782–87), followed in the tradition of Gibbs, with an oval plan, tetrastyle Corinthian portico and a tall steeple. The builder, Alexander Stevens, probably also designed the steeple of St Cuthbert's Church (1789–90).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 176. At Fochabers, from 1776 John Baxter redesigned the village on a grid plan, with a central square focused on Bellie Church (1795–97), still following in the tradition of Gibbs, with a tetrastyle portico and steeple.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 181.
Nineteenth century
Neo-Classicial decline
In the early nineteenth century the Gibbs-influenced steepled tradition continued, as can be seen in Robert Nisbet's
Inveresk
Inveresk (Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic: ''Inbhir Easg'') is a village in East Lothian, Scotland situated to the south of Musselburgh. It has been designated a Conservation area (United Kingdom), conservation area since 1969. It is situated on s ...
Church (1803–10). A Grecian form was developed at William Burn's
North Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
Church (1813) and St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh (1816). The controversy over the style of the Scottish National Monument in 1816 led to the labelling of Greek temple motifs as "pagan" and relatively few columnar Greek churches were built after that in the capital. An exception was Archibald Elliot's Broughton Church (1820–21), which had a Doric temple front. More common in Edinburgh were churches that combined classical elements with other features, like the domed St George's,
Charlotte Square
300px, Robert Adam's palace-fronted north side
Charlotte Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is located at the west end of George Street and was intended ...
(1811–14), executed by Robert Reid, or the Gracco-Baroque of William Playfair's St Stephen's (1827–28).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 234. In Glasgow there was a tradition of grafting porticoes on to existing meeting-houses, which continued in
Gillespie Graham
Gillespie may refer to:
* Gillespie (surname), including a list of people who share the name
Places
United Kingdom
* Gillespie Road, a road in Highbury, London, England
* Gillespie Road, the former name of Arsenal tube station, Highbury, London ...
's West George Street Independent Church (1818), which was criticised as "
popish
The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodo ...
", and John Baird I's Greyfriars United Secession Church (1821), which was fronted by a Roman Doric portico. Classical designs for the established Church included the redevelopment by William Stark of
St George's-Tron Church
The St George's Tron Church, in Glasgow, Scotland, is a Church of Scotland church in the city centre, located in Nelson Mandela Place, previously known as St George's Place, fronting Buchanan Street at West George Street, along from Queen Stre ...
(1807–08), David Hamilton's St Enoch's Parish Church (1827) and St Paul's Parish Church (1835).
Gothic Revival
As elsewhere in Western Europe, in the nineteenth century there was a return to Medieval styles, grouped together into a Gothic revival. Early examples included Adams' St George's Episcopal Chapel in Edinburgh (1792), which included octagonal lantern on
ogival arch
An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking.
Etymology
The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th c ...
es. Other examples included James Playfair's chapel-like Farnell Church (c. 1789) and
Richard Crichton
Richard Crichton (died 1817) was a Scottish architect operating in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was described as "competent and versatile".
Life
He was born around 1771, the son of James Crichton (d.1797) an Edinburgh mason.
...
's towered Craig Parish Church (1799). In the early nineteenth century examples influenced by the English Perpendicular included Glenorchy Church (1810–11), built by the
Earl of Breadalbane
Earl of Breadalbane and Holland is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1681 for Sir John Campbell, 5th Baronet, of Glenorchy, who had previously been deprived of the title Earl of Caithness.
Creation
Sir John, as a princi ...
, John Paterson's octagonal reconstruction of St Paul's Church,
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
(c. 1800–07) and Fetteresso Church, Stonehaven (1810–12). Examples of a more explicitly perpendicular form can be seen in Gillespie Graham's
Collace
Collace () is a parish in Perthshire, Scotland, northeast of Perth, in the Carse of Gowrie district. The parish boundary includes the neighbouring villages of Kinrossie and Saucher.
The traditional industries of the area are farming, quarry ...
(1813), or David Hamilton's Old Erskine (1813–14).
As urban populations grew, major Neo-Gothic churches were built to accommodate them. After the passing of the
Catholic Relief Act
The Roman Catholic Relief Bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions impose ...
, James Gillespie Graham designed St Andrew's Roman Catholic Chapel in Glasgow (1814–17). There was also growth in the Episcopal Church, which benefited from the mainly Anglican migrant English workers. In Edinburgh these were modelled on the English Perpendicular, as at St Paul's York Place (1816–18), the towered St John's Chapel (1816–18) and St David's (Ramshorn) (1824–26). In Glasgow, the Ramshorn Kirk's has a T-plan and symmetrical front with tall tower.
The Kirk began to concern itself with providing churches in the new towns and relatively thinly supplied Highlands, establishing a church extension committee in 1828. Led by
Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers (17 March 178031 May 1847), was a Scottish minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nine ...
, by the early 1840s it had added 222 churches, largely through public subscription. When the
Great Disruption
The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
occurred in 1843, and roughly a third of ministers and their congregations left the established church and its buildings to form the
Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to:
* Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical
* Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...
, Chalmers' organisational skills helped the Free Church build over 700 new places of worship by 1847. The established church took time to recover, but embarked on a rival programme of church building, increasing its number of parishes from 924 in 1843 to 1,437 by 1909.C. Brooks, "Introduction", in C. Brooks, ed., ''The Victorian Church: Architecture and Society'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), , pp. 17–18. The intense competition between different denominations led to the creation of grand churches with tall steeples and ultimately resulted in an oversupply of churches, which would be a financial burden to future generations.S. J. Brown, "Religion and society to c. 1900", in T. M. Devine and J. Wormald, eds, ''The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), , p. 95.
The intense competition for congregations also led to changes to make worship more attractive that were reflected in architecture. The Church of Scotland was among the first European Protestant churches to engage in liturgical innovation reflected in seating arrangements, abandoning box pews for open benches. From the middle of the nineteenth century some of its churches, like Greyfriars in Edinburgh, began installing organs and stained glass windows, reflecting an attempt to return to forms of worship largely excluded since the late seventeenth century. At
Duns
Duns may refer to:
* Duns, Scottish Borders, a town in Berwickshire, Scotland
** Duns railway station
** Duns F.C., a football club
** Duns RFC, a rugby football club
** Battle of Duns, an engagement fought in 1372
* Duns Scotus ( 1265/66–1308) ...
the church was rebuilt (opened 1888) in a plan used in the Middle Ages, with a separate chancel, communion table at the far end, and the pulpit under the chancel arch. The influence of the
ecclesiological movement
The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society,Histor ...
can be seen in churches built at
Crathie
Crathie ( gd, Craichidh) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It stands on the north bank of the River Dee.
Abergeldie Castle is away. It was built around 1550 and had 19th century additions. It was garrisoned by General Hugh Mackay in 1 ...
(opened 1893), which had an
apsidal
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...
chancel raised above the level of the nave, a stone pulpit and a brass lectern, and St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh (rebuilt 1894), with a marble communion table in a chancel decorated with marble and mosaic.
A sub-set of the Medieval revival were Neo-Romanesque churches, often called "Norman" at the time, built in a style that incorporated Romanesque,
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
features within a low-massive framework. These were utilised by all the major denominations. Examples include the Church of Scotland buildings at Errol (1831–33); the Catholic St. Anthony's Chapel,
Murthly
Murthly (Scottish Gaelic ''Mòrthlaich'') is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It lies on the south bank of the River Tay, southeast of Dunkeld, and north of Perth. Perth District Asylum, later known as Murthly Hospital, was opened in t ...
(1845); McBridge Free Church, Rothsay (1845); and the Episcopalian St. Thomas, Rutland Place, Edinburgh (1842–43).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , pp. 234–5 and 302. Later nineteenth-century examples included the church at Strathbungo (1873), and St. Ninian's, Cathcart Road (1888), Glasgow, both designed by W. G. Rowan.T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 118.
The Gothic style developed fully in the later nineteenth century. Important figures included
Frederick Thomas Pilkington
Frederick Thomas Pilkington (1832-1898), pupil of his father, was a "Rogue" British architect, practising in the Victorian architecture, Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, High Gothic revival style. He designed mostly churches and instituti ...
(1832–98), who adapted the Gothic style for the needs of the Free Church of Scotland, as at
Barclay Viewforth Church
Barclay Viewforth Church is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Presbytery of Edinburgh.
History
Located at the border between the Bruntsfield and Tollcross areas of the city at the junction of Barclay Place and Wright's Houses ...
, Edinburgh (1862–64).G. Stamp, "The Victorian kirk: Presbyterian architecture in nineteenth century Scotland", in C. Brooks, ed., ''The Victorian Church: Architecture and Society'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), , pp. 108–10.Robert Rowand Anderson (1834–1921), trained in the office of leading Gothic Architect
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...
in London before returning to Edinburgh, where he worked on many small churches, including St James the Less in
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
, Christ Church,
Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
Paisley Abbey
Paisley Abbey is a parish church of the Church of Scotland on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, about west of Glasgow, in Scotland. Its origins date from the 12th century, based on a for ...
(1898–1907).S. McKinstry, ''Rowand Anderson: the Premier Architect of Scotland'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 209–12Alexander "Greek" Thomson (1817–75), working mainly in Glasgow, began in the Gothic style, but soon turned toward the ancient Greeks and Egyptians for inspiration, as can be seen in the temple and columns that were part of the Caledonia Road Church (1856). Scotland's most influential architect of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Charles Rennie MacKintosh, designed a number of churches, but only one,
Queen's Cross
Queen's Cross is an area in the West End of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is located just west of the main thoroughfare of Union Street and about from the geographical town centre at Mercat Cross.
Queen's Cross itself is the intersection of Fountai ...
Free Church, Glasgow (1898–99) was built. It avoided the characteristic steeple of Glasgow churches in favour of a wide tower, and has a simple, elegant, rectangular structure with a single aisle.
Twentieth century
Neo-Romanesque
In the first half of the twentieth century, there continued to be isolated examples of Gothic church building, including L. G. Thomson's
Reid Memorial Church
The Reid Memorial Church is a church in Edinburgh. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland (in the Presbytery of Edinburgh) and is located in the Blackford area on the south side of the city.
History
After growing resentment within the ...
, Edinburgh (1929–33) and J. Taylor Thomson's St John Renfield Church, Glasgow (1927–31). The most common forms in this period were plain and massive Neo-Romanesque buildings. Protestant examples included H. O. Tarbolton's
Bangour
Bangour Village Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located west of Dechmont in West Lothian, Scotland. During the First World War it formed part of the much larger Edinburgh War Hospital.
History
The hospital was modelled on the village system ...
Village Church (1924–30) and L. G. Thomson's
Fairmilehead
Fairmilehead is a district of southern Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies approximately due south of the city centre and borders Midlothian. The area comprises the neighbourhoods of Buckstone, Caiyside, Caiystane, Swanston, Frogston and Winton.
T ...
Church (1937). Roman Catholic examples included
Reginald Fairlie
Reginald Francis Joseph Fairlie LLD (7 March 1883 – 27 October 1952) was a Scottish architect. He served as a commissioner of RCAHMS and on the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland.
Life
see
Born at Kincaple, Fife, he was the son of J. Ogi ...
's Immaculate Conception Church, Fort William (1933–34), and Archibald Macpherson's St Matthew, Rosewell (completed 1926).M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 418.
The reunification of the Church of Scotland in 1929 removed much of the need for new Presbyterian church-building, which was replaced by a tendency towards renovating nineteenth-century churches, toning-down ritualistic furnishings; replacing dark varnish by white or neutral colour schemes. The main tendency in church design in the 1930s was a move towards classicism. There were isolated large classical Protestant commissions, such as Bristo Baptist Church, Edinburgh (1933–35), but the major buildings in this form were in the Catholic Church where there was a movement towards worshipper-centred basilican plans, after the pontificate of Pius X (1903–14). This movement reached its peak in the 1960s after the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
.
The leading figure in pursuing this style was Giacomo Antonio (Jack) Coia, who after the deaths of his partners, was the sole heir to the Glasgow-based practice of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. From the later 1920s he pursued a brick style of Catholic architecture, pioneered by Macpherson in Edinburgh and combined with the classical tendencies of Fairlie's refacing of St Patrick's, Cowgate (1928–29). Coia's first church, St Anne's,
Dennistoun
Dennistoun is a mostly residential district in Glasgow, Scotland, located north of the River Clyde and in the city's east end, about east of the city centre. Since 2017 it has formed the core of a Dennistoun ward under Glasgow City Council, ...
(1931), utilised the engineering techniques of
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
, resulting in a broad, centralised space, with narrow arcades rather than aisles, with a monumental facade of red-brick. He used a more linear plan in subsequent designs, including St Patrick,
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
(1934–35), St Columba, Maryhill (1937), and St Columbkille, Rutherglen (1934–40). The early Christian and Byzantine character of the most striking of these, St Patrick's, was enhanced by carvings by
Archibald Dawson
Archibald C. Dawson ARSA (16 April 1892 – 15 April 1938) was a Scottish sculptor, specialising in architectural carving.Empire Exhibition (1938) was fronted by a Mackintosh-like grid of metalwork, and with his St Peter in Chains Church, Ardrossan (1938), with austere walls and towers, showed the influence of the "abstract compositions" of contemporary Swedish architecture and pointed to the future influence of modernism.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 417.
Modernism and Post-Modernism
After the Second World War, there was another period of rapid church building, as the creation of new towns and
council house
A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...
estates necessitated the rapid supply of new churches.C. G. Brown, ''Religion and Society in Scotland Since 1707'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 1997), , p. 164. The austerity, shortage of materials and need for rapid building, discouraged the development of innovative design. This was accompanied by the rejection by most architects of traditional forms in favour of " international modernism", characterised by simple outlines, uncluttered internal spaces, absence of colour, and flat roofs.J. R. Hume "Post-War Churches In Scotland: Breaking The Mould" ''Scotland's Churches Trust'', retrieved 29 December 2012.
The Catholic Church, whose traditional membership was most affected by the changes in housing, was the first to react to this situation, creating 76 new parishes between 1845 and 1960 in the west of the country alone. The Baptist and Episcopalian churches followed close behind, particularly in the new towns. Within the Church of Scotland, the closeness of congregation and clergy was expressed in the domestic plainness of 1950s dual-use hall churches, as at Reiach's
Kildrum
Kildrum was the first area to be constructed in Cumbernauld new town, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It provided housing for the workers at the Burroughs factory at Old Inns, the first factory in Cumbernauld New Town.
The main road is in the shap ...
Parish Church,
Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...
(completed 1962), a steel framed building, clad in timber and brick with a flat roof.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , pp. 471–2. Of 129 buildings erected by the Church of Scotland between 1948 and 1959, 108 were on this basic pattern.
The influence of more radical
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
and
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
Mortonhall
Mortonhall is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the south edge of the city.
The area is along the western end of the Frogston Road between Fairmilehead and Gilmerton; it is just to the south of Liberton and the Braid Hills.
The area was ...
Crematorium, Edinburgh (1964–67), with a series of irregular chapels, with smooth-faced blockwork and Wheeler & Sproson's Boghall Church,
Bathgate
Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated sout ...
(1965), influenced by Beaux-Arts architecture. The pioneering contribution from the Church of Scotland was St. Columbia's, Glenrothes (1960), which had seating for the congregation on three sides of a central platform, with the choir and elders on the fourth side behind the pulpit.N. Yates, ''Liturgical Space: Christian Worship and Church Buildings in Western Europe 1500–2000 Liturgy, Worship & Society'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), , p. 156.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the most important steps towards an
expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
design were under taken by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. This began with St Paul's Church in the new town of Glenrothes (1956–57). This was a wedge-shaped construction of white-painted common brick focused on a dramatic, jagged metal cross by the sculptor Benno Schotz. From about 1960, all Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's churches were designed in this Late Modernist style, as at St Bride's,
East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
(1963–64), which had a rectangular plan. From the mid-1960s, they adopted a centralised, non-rectangular plan, with seating ranged round the altar, reflecting liturgical change. Sacred Heart Church,
Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...
(1964), was rectangular, of load-bearing brick, dramatically lit through dark coloured windows. Our Lady of Good Counsel,
Dennistoun
Dennistoun is a mostly residential district in Glasgow, Scotland, located north of the River Clyde and in the city's east end, about east of the city centre. Since 2017 it has formed the core of a Dennistoun ward under Glasgow City Council, ...
(1965) had a splayed plan and slanted ceiling. St Benedict Drumchapel (1965–67) had a prow-like roof on curved, laminated timbers. These innovative designs inspired others to experiment, including J. McCarron's Our Lady of Sorrows, South Uist (1964–65). However, many of these designs proved too radical and were later demolished by the Catholic Church, citing structural or maintenance problems.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 475.
The end of this phase of church-building, as the production of new housing subsided in the 1970s, saw a return to conservatism in church design, which may have reflected a loss of confidence in the churches as attendances rapidly declined. M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie have identified a "post-Coia" style emerging in this period.M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie, ''A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), , p. 487. The limited building, some replacing existing churches, tended to be by building companies using laminated timber beams, exposed brickwork and pyramidal roofs to produce utilitarian, if aesthetically unadventurous, constructions. From the late 1980s there were some original designs, including St Mary the Virgin, in
Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...
(1984) by Frank Burnet, Bell and Partners; St Anthony's Catholic church in Kirriemuir (1987), by James F. Stephen Architects; and the replacement church at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Faifley (1997) by Jacobsen and French. There was also the
postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
design of St John Ogilvie Catholic Church,
Irvine Irvine may refer to:
Places On Earth Antarctica
*Irvine Glacier
*Mount Irvine (Antarctica)
Australia
*Irvine Island
*Mount Irvine, New South Wales
Canada
*Irvine, Alberta
* Irvine Inlet, Nunavut
United Kingdom
*Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...
(1982), and the nearby
Girdle Toll
Girdle Toll is an area of Irvine, North Ayrshire.
Geography
Girdle Toll is located east of the Stanecastle Roundabout located next to the Stanecastle Keep. This area of Irvine is from Prestwick Airport and from Glasgow. Nearby is Eglinton Cou ...
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...