Building record MAB4181 - TOMINTOUL PARISH CHURCH

Parish church and graveyard.

Parish church and graveyard. The church was built in 1826 by Thomas Telford, although William Thompson, one of his surveyors, carried out the actual design. It was constructed following the 1824 Parliamentary Act for Building Additional Places of Worship in Scotland and thus known as a Parliamentary Church. It was substantially altered and re-fronted by John Robertson of Inverness in 1900, in the style of a Medieval church. There were urgent repairs carried out in circa 2014, including re-slating the roof and masonry repairs.

The church is built of coursed rubble with tooled dressings, with rubble flanks and rear and a slate roof. The street frontage is of four buttressed bays, and there is a gabled projecting porch rising to the full height at the southwest. There is a pointed doorway in the re-entrant angle. There are pinnacle buttresses at the angles. All windows have 1900 tracery and glazing. At the apex of the north gable is a stumpy birdcage belfry, dated 1826.

Internally, the church had been remodelled in ornate Gothic style by James Garvie and Sons in circa 1900, with some stained glass, an oak communion table, and a pulpit. There is an E. F. Walcker and Co. organ from 1903, and reredos, dating to 1911, have carved decorations of the Finding in the Temple, the Risen Christ, and the Good Shepherd. To the rear of the church is a graveyard, with high rubble walls.

The Quod Sacra parish of Tomintoul was formed in 1833. The church is one of the famous Telford churches built in the early to mid-19th Century. Thomas Telford was commissioned to supply the general design for the parliamentary churches, though Tomintoul bears little resemblance to the typical plan, following its rebuilding in 1900 when it was altered and refaced in a style similar to that of Medieval churches.

There is one Commonwealth War Grave in the graveyard, for Private John Milner, 3rd Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers (d. 8 March 1920). Monumental inscriptions within the churchyard were recorded by the Moray Burial Ground Research Group between 2011-2015.

Img 295 - 299, Img 295 - 299 (Ground Photograph). SAB36072.

MORAY BURIAL GROUND RESEARCH GROUP, 2016, MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS: CHURCHES OF KIRKMICHAEL, TOMINTOUL PARISH & ST MICHAELS, TOMINTOUL CEMETERY AND WAR MEMORIALS (Bibliographic reference). SAB7660.

Record last edited

Jul 23 2026 9:08PM