Building record MAB40040 - OLD AND NEW ST ANDREW'S CHURCH, MONTROSE

Parish church and graveyard, still in ecclesiastical use, built in 1791 by David Logan, architect, on the site of its predecessor, which was an early medieval structure dedicated to St John the Evangelist and founded by the late-12th century, although it is known to have been extended in 1643.

Parish church and graveyard, still in ecclesiastical use, built in 1791 by David Logan, architect, on the site of its predecessor, which was an early medieval structure dedicated to St John the Evangelist and founded by the late-12th century, although it is known to have been extended in 1643. No external visible evidence remains of the early building. The current church initially kept the earlier tower, which had the spire added in the 17th century. It began to show structural issues in 1811, and a new tower and spire was added by James Gillespie Graham (1832-4), which at 220 feet (67 metres) has one of the tallest steeples in Scotland. The south apse was added in 1885. The west gable was later refaced to match the tower. There is one bell by Peter Ostens, dated 1678, and three by Thomas Mears of London, two of which are dated 1801 and 1836. The burial monuments in the graveyard mainly date from the mid-17th to early-19th centuries. It is shown on the 1st edition OS map as a rectangular church with a central square projection on the west elevation, and two small projections on the north elevation, within a wall. At the eastern end of the graveyard are two rectangular buildings. On the 2nd edition OS map there is a central advanced section to the south elevation, the eastern projection on the north elevation has been extended and the rectangular buildings to the east have been removed. It is a rectangular-plan church with a dominating perpendicular gothic west tower and a late 19th century south apse. The nave is constructed from rubble sandstone, and the tower from ashlar. There is uniform later-19th century tracery to the nave, and the mullioned, pointed-arch windows have cusped heads and arches, chamfered margins, battered cills. The tower to the west elevation has an entrance at the ground floor, with four colonnettes at each side framing a four-centre arch with a crocketed ogee hoodmould and finial. Within the doorway are two-leaf panelled doors that are decorated with carved studs, and has a crenellated architrave and a fanlight with pointed-arch tracery. There are transomed windows with multifoil heads, plate tracery and hoodmoulds to the second stage. The third stage has clock faces with stone architraves, set within cusped panelling. The fourth stage has paired lancets with shallow cusping to the heads, timber louvres and crocketted ogee hoodmoulds with finials. There is tracery to the parapet. There are clasping buttresses rising to gabletted and crocketed pinnacles, supporting quatrefoil tracery flying buttresses. The octagonal spire is crocketed, with lancets that are miniatures of those at the fourth stage, and there is an apex weathervane. The north gable end of the nave flanking the tower has mullioned and transomed windows with cusped upper lights, quatrefoils and hoodmoulds. The parapet above is crenellated. There a flying corner buttresses with pierced, cusped, quatrefoil panels rising to crocketed pinnacles with gabletted lucarnes. The east gable end has two windows to the ground and first floor, and a bipartite in the gablehead. The north elevation has a porch in the centre of the boundary wall, opening into the nave at the ground. There is a pointed-arch doorpiece with voussiours and a plain panel beneath. The two-leaf panelled doors have flanking pilasters, and there is gablet decoration to the capitals, cornice and parapet. The south elevation features a large, advanced canted bay, with full-height, mullioned windows. Inside there are two-tiered horseshoe galleries on Roman-Doric columns. A timber, panelled, octagonal pulpit with sounding board is set on a balustraded podium in the south apse. Memorials include a World War I oak communion table dedicated in 14 October 1923, and oak tablet also unveiled on that day. The graveyard to the east is divided by the public pathway (Churchyard Walk). There are square corniced and capped gatepiers at the east entrance to the pathway, with a cast- and wrought-iron Sturrock Lamp bridging the piers. There are coped rubble boundary walls, and a 19th century boundary wall parallel with the north wall of the nave, with an ashlar panelled and crenellated section to the south-west. There was a cist and other artefacts found in the foundations of the west tower (see NO75NW0032), and the Town House to the north-west (NO75NW0085) was built over burials from the graveyard.

Period Notes
Church on the site in the late-12th century, extended in 1643. A spire was added in the 17th century. The current church was built on the site in 1791, with the tower and spire kept, and replaced in 1832-4. The south apse was added in 1885. There are bells dated 1678, 1801 and 1836. The burial monuments in the graveyard mainly date from the mid-17th to the early-19th centuries. The church, graveyard and boundary walls were listed on 11/06/1971.

B/49162, B/49162 (Photograph). SAB28072.

B/49163, B/49163 (Photograph). SAB28073.

B/49164, B/49164 (Photograph). SAB28074.

B/49165, B/49165 (Photograph). SAB28339.

B/49167, B/49167 (Photograph). SAB27717.

B/49168, B/49168 (Photograph). SAB27718.

B/49169, B/49169 (Photograph). SAB27719.

B/49170, B/49170 (Photograph). SAB27720.

B/49171, B/49171 (Photograph). SAB27721.

OSA, 1791-9, [Untitled], Vol.5, 32-5 (Bibliographic reference). SAB9606.

Warden, A J, 1880-5, [Untitled], Vol.4, 430 (Bibliographic reference). SAB10230.

Low, J G, 1891, [Untitled], 1-202 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4991.

Hewison, J K, 1891, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 25, 52, 56 (Bibliographic reference). SAB12088.

GOURLAY, R, 1977, HISTORIC MONTROSE: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT, P7 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2587.

WHITE, H, 2001, TALES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. IN THE REVIEW 13/09/01 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2124.

WHITE, H, 2012, MONTROSE BASIN SURVEY 1999-2012 (Bibliographic reference). SAB2127.

Feb 12 2008 , AAS/08/1/DG2, AAS/08/1/DG2 (Air-oblique Photograph). SAB21211.

Jan 1 1998 , AAS/GR/98/CT541, AAS/GR/98/CT541 (Ground Photograph). SAB33131.

Record last edited

Oct 30 2025 1:36PM