St Conan's Kirk is located in the village of

Loch Awe Loch Awe (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Obha'') is a large body of freshwater in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe or Lochawe. There are islands within the loch such ...

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

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 ...

. In a 2016

Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) is the professional body for architects in Scotland. History Previously the (lapsed) Architectural Institute of Scotland, it was re-founded in 1916 as the Incorporation of Architects in ...

public poll it was voted one of the Top 10 buildings in Scotland of the last 100 years. It was established as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

by the Campbells of

Innis Chonan Innis Chonain or Innischonan is an island in Loch Awe, Scotland connected to the mainland by a bridge. Architect, author and antiquarian Walter Douglas Campbell, a young brother of Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood, purchased the island ...

. The church is protected as a

category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being *Categories (Aristotle), ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) ...

Architecture and fittings

It was designed by the architect Walter Douglas Campbell, a younger brother of Archibald Campbell, 1st

Baron Blythswood Baron Blythswood, of Blythswood in the County of Renfrew, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 24 August 1892 for Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet, the former Member of Parliament for Renfrew, with remainder f ...

. It was built in 1881–6; and substantially extended from 1906 to 1914, the year of his death. Campbell also designed in similar style the family mansion nearby on Innis Chonain for himself, his artist sister Helen and mother, the elderly Mrs Caroline Campbell of Blythswood, formerly resident in

Blythswood House Blythswood House was a 100-room neoclassical mansion at Renfrew, Scotland, built for the Douglas-Campbell family from the considerable incomes arising from their ownership of the Lands of Blythswood in Glasgow, including Blythswood Hill, develo ...

downriver from Glasgow. The heavy oak beams in the cloister are believed to have come from the (then) recently broken up wooden battleships, HMS ''Caledonia'' and . An eclectic blend of church styles, from

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, it is built of local stone. It consists of a

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

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

, with the chancel-stalls being canopied. Large, unsmoothed boulders of granite from nearby

Ben Cruachan Ben Cruachan ( gd, Cruachan Beann) is a mountain that rises to , the highest in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It gives its name to the Cruachan Dam, a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station located in a cavern inside the mountain. It is the hig ...

, form the piers which carry the chancel arch, and the

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 make the Sacred Cross. There is also a tower and spire. Walter was unmarried and left no heirs. His sister Helen Douglas Campbell ensured that final work was in progress by 1927, the year of her death. The Kirk was consecrated in 1930. Fittings included a small organ. One ancient window from

South Leith Parish Church South Leith Parish Church, originally the Kirk of Our Lady, St Mary, is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is the principal church and congregation in Leith, in Edinburgh. Its kirkyard is the burial place for John Home (author of ''D ...

was re-used at St Conan's. It also houses a fragment of bone that is said to have come from

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of Scotland.

Chapels

There are also three chapels within St Conan's Kirk. The Bruce Chapel contains a carved wood and alabaster effigy of Robert the Bruce. The St Brides Chapel contains a carved effigy of Walter Douglas Campbell. The St Conval's Chapel is dedicated to the 4th Lord Blythswood. The metalwork gates on the St Brides and St Conval's Chapel were made by

Thomas Hadden Thomas Hadden (1871–1940) was a Scottish maker of ornamental ironwork from wrought iron, particularly for the architect Robert Lorimer. Life Hadden was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire in 1871. He came from an ironworking family, and serve ...

Ownership

Although used for services by the local

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

Parish, with services on the first Sunday of each month the Kirk was bequeathed to the independent St Conan's Church Trust (SC012643). In 2014 a friends organisation, Friends of St Conan's Kirk SCIO (SC045006) was formed to support the Kirk.

Related buildings

St Conan's Tower St Conan's Tower is a 19th-century granite-built country house, near Lochawe in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Designed and built by architect, author and antiquarian Walter Douglas Campbell, a young brother of Archibald Campbell, 1st Baron Blythswood ...

is away. Other related buildings in the area of Lochawe village include Innis Chonain House, Badnaiska (Summer Manse) and the House of Letterawe, the former home of the author

Mary Stewart (novelist) Mary, Lady Stewart (born Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow; 17 September 1916 – 9 May 2014) was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. Sh ...

Gallery

File:St Conan's Kirk, Lochawe - geograph.org.uk - 381318.jpg, Exterior view facing Loch Awe File:St Conan's Kirk Chancel.jpg, Chancel File:Stalls in the Chancel, St Conan's Kirk, Lochawe - geograph.org.uk - 381507.jpg, Stalls in the chancel File:St Conan's Kirk Railing Detail.jpg, Railing detail File:St Conan's Kirk Dolphin Chairs.jpg, Dolphin chairs File:The cloisters at St. Conan's Kirk, Lochawe - geograph.org.uk - 1356498.jpg, Cloisters File:St Conan's Kirk Dog Downspout.jpg, Chasing dog downspout File:St Conan's Kirk Hare Downspout.jpg, Running hares downspouts File:St Conan's Kirk Owl Detail in Stone.jpg, Carved owls File:St Conan's Kirk Patron's Statue.jpg, St. Conan's statue

References

External links

Video footage of the Bruce Chapel and Ossuary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Conan's Kirk Church of Scotland churches in Scotland Churches in Argyll and Bute Loch Awe Churches completed in 1886 Listed churches in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Argyll and Bute