Building record MAB36179 - THE OLD PARISH CHURCH, DUNDEE STREET, CARNOUSTIE

Church, in use, depicted on the 2nd edition OS map.

Church, in use, depicted on the 2nd edition OS map. It was designed in 1899 by Peter Macgregor Chalmers and opened in 1902. The design is influenced by Early Christian and neo-Romanesque church architecture with round-arched openings and an arcaded interior. The church has a rectangular plan with side aisles. Peter Macgregor Chalmers was one of Scotland's foremost early 20th Century church architects; Carnoustie Church is a little-altered example his work. The entrance front (facing the road) has a square-plan tower at the southeast corner with double round-arched doorways. The west side has a single-storey projecting aisle and the east side is double-height, with the upper level lit by round-arch clerestory windows. To the rear of the church are a tall chancel and single-storey transepts. A single-storey gabled vestry adjoins the northeast corner angle. The walls are of stugged Carmyllie masonry. The roofs are covered with grey slate. The interior has a tall nave and round-arched chancel, flanked by aisles that are asymmetrical in height. The double-height east aisle has a stone arcade with plain stone columns. There is a stone stair with iron railings in the entrance tower leading to the raked gallery which is supported by the arcade. The roof structure is open timber. The pulpit is of carved oak, with Romanesque arcading and Neo-Romanesque corbels. The oak communion table, in the chancel, is panelled with Romanesque arcading containing reliefs of angels, vines and a cross on an interlaced background. There is an octagonal stone font. The lectern is wrought iron. The west aisle has a single-storey stone arcade with a round-arched window at the south end. Biblical texts are carved into the walls at various locations, above doors, on the stone base of the pulpit and on the font. Stained glass includes war memorial windows by Margaret Chilton and Marjorie Kemp (1923), a round window in the chancel by Alexander Strachan (1930-1) depicting the Maries at the Empty Tomb, and a memorial window to Dr George Cecil Dickson. There is a 1902 organ by H. S. Vincent and Son, rebuilt with a new console and additional pipework by J. R. Lightbown (1989), with further work in 1999. Outside of the church there is a low rubble boundary wall with spear-headed iron railings and pedestrian gates. The boundary wall becomes a retaining wall to the rear of the church to address a rise in the ground level.

Period Notes
listed 28/08/2020. Opened in 1902

GIFFORD, J, 2012, THE BUILDINGS OF SCOTLAND: DUNDEE AND ANGUS, pp416-417 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2631.

Record last edited

May 2 2023 10:29AM