St John's Church, formerly Dunoon Free Church, is a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

church building in

Dunoon Dunoon (; ) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the cou ...

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute (; , ) is one of 32 unitary authority, unitary council areas of Scotland, council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod ...

, Scotland. A

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structure, it is located in the town centre at the junction between Hanover Street and Victoria Road. The church is still in daily use.

History

The Very Reverend The Very Reverend (abbreviated as The Very Revd or The Very Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. The definite article "t ...

Mackintosh MacKay Mackintosh MacKay (1793 – 1873) was a Scottish minister and author who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1849. He edited the Highland Society's prodigious Gaelic dictionary ('Dictionarium Scoto-Celt ...

's 27 February 1840 ''Address to the Parishioners of Dunoon and Kilmun'', given from the Manse in Dunoon, was published later that year. An 1842 addendum by MacKay was later included. The current building was erected in 1843 on the site of an older church. Architect Robert Alexander Bryden was hired and the present church building was completed in 1877. (Bryden is buried about half a mile to the north of the church, in Dunoon Cemetery.) Like the predecessor, it was initially called Dunoon Free Church and later renamed St John's Church.

Description

St John's Church was built using

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

masonry and stands on a steeply sloping site which increases its apparent size and the height of the tower and spire. The architecture is in the Normandy

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

style with crisply carved details. The interior is laid out with a horse-shoe shaped gallery for the congregation and a raised and raked gallery for the choir behind the central pulpit. There are many stained-glass windows throughout the building. The organ was installed in 1895 by Brook & Co. as a two-manual pipe organ and was subsequently enlarged to three manuals in 1921. The church was refurbished in 2012 via a £200,000 grant from

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

and the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

."Dunoon praises church refurbishment scheme"
- Premier Construction News, 2012

Gallery

File:Rev-dr-mackintosh-mackay-1800-1873-of-dunoon-melbo.jpg, Rev. Dr Mackintosh MacKay (1800–1873). Of Dunoon, Melbourne and Sydney, Church of Scotland and Free Church minister, Gaelic scholar

References

External links

Cowal Kirk Website

Scotland's Churches Trust website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Church Dunoon Category A listed buildings in Argyll and Bute Listed churches in Scotland Listed buildings in Dunoon Churches in Dunoon

1877 establishments in Scotland