The Church of The Incarnation was built between 1827 and 1829 as a Roman Catholic church, under the patronage of the

Gordon family Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

, in

Banffshire Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Moray ...

, Scotland. It was originally built by John Gall, and finished between 1843 and 1844 by James Kyle with assistance from

Walter Lovi Father Walter Lovi (1796 – 1878) was a Roman Catholic priest and architect, active in Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. He was born in Edinburgh in 1796, the son of a Scottish mother and an Italian father. He studied at Scots College in ...

. It was designated a

Category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1972, and upgraded to Category A in 1987. It ceased being used as an active church in 2012, and as of 2019 is on the

Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records buildings of national architectural or historic interest which are considered to be under threat. The list is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland (HES). The register was established in 1 ...

, described as being at moderate risk, and in poor condition.

History

A Catholic priest, under the patronage of the Gordons, was active in the Tombae area since at least 1745, many years before the

emancipation of Catholics Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

in Scotland. The Church of the Incarnation was built to supersede a mass house that had been used for worship at nearby Kinakyle, which was badly damaged in floods in 1829 and no longer exists. The builder was John Gall, an Aberdeen cabinet maker, builder and architect, whose two sons were Catholic priests. The foundation stone was laid in 1827, and it was opened for worship on 2 February 1829, although it was unfinished at that point. The building was completed, and the interior remodelled, by James Kyle, the Roman Catholic bishop of Aberdeen, with assistance from

, a priest and architect who worked on numerous church buildings in the region from the 1820s to the 1840s. The building was designated a

in 1972; it was upgraded to Category A in 1987. The church was closed in 2012 due to concerns over the structure, and the danger of falling slates. In 2013, it was added to the

, with the roof continuing to shed slates, problems with the guttering and pointing, and minor structural cracks. As of March 2018, it was on the market for sale.

Description

The church is designed in 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 ...

style, and is oriented roughly east–west, with the main entrance in the gabled west front, which unusually faces away from the main road and approach to the building. It has a tooled pink granite ashlar

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 ...

frontage and detailing, originally with harled sides and rear, but with much of the harling now removed exposing the rubble masonry. A large, single, wooden door within a deeply recessed pointed arch provides the main entrance in the west front, beneath a pointed-arch window with intersecting tracery and latticed glazing, with similar windows to either side. There is a large Celtic cross on the apex of the gable. The side elevations each have three point-arch windows, also with intersecting tracery and latticed panes. The east gable, which faces the road, has similar stonework to the side elevations, tall narrow windows, and a stone cross finial. The interior is rib-vaulted throughout, supported by timber-panelled cast iron columns. A decorated pipe organ, made by Conacher in Huddersfield, was originally installed in a narrow gallery on the western wall, but after the church ceased being used as a place of worship, the organ was dismantled and donated to the Lebanese Evangelical Church. It was installed in the chapel of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in Lebanon in 2017. The churchyard contains the family vault of George Smith, the founder of the Glenlivet distillery, who died in 1871 at the age of 75.

Current Usage

The church was closed to the public in 2012, and put up for sale in 2018. It is currently rated as being at moderate risk, and in a poor condition.

References

{{Reflist 1829 establishments in Scotland 2012 disestablishments in Scotland Former Roman Catholic church buildings Listed churches in Scotland