Building record MAB8230 - ST MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION RC CHURCH, FIFE STREET, DUFFTOWN

Roman Catholic church, still in use, and former school.

Roman Catholic church, still in use, and former school. Built in 1825, designed by Rev James Kyle (and possibly Rev Walter Lovi), and one of the earliest catholic churches to have been built in the area. It is rectangular in plan, of grey rubble granite with fine sandstone ashlar stonework around openings and for the buttresses and finials, and a slate roof. The principle, south, elevation has three bays with tall buttresses between each bay. There is a central pointed-arch doorway below a small fanlight with fine stained glass. Above the doorway is a wide pointed-arch window with simple intersecting tracery and clear multi-pane glass, and in the gablehead a small round window (or oculus) with stained glass. The wallhead of the gable in the central bay has an ornate stone parapet course with a cross finial in the middle. The outer flanking bays of the gable have tall, fairly narrow pointed-arch windows. The east and west side elevations of the church are fairly plain, of three bays, with two large pointed-arch windows, which reach the wallhead, and which have leaded, coloured panes of glass or full stained glass. At the northern end of the elevations are small round windows (oculi), just below the wallhead. Attached to the north end of the church is a small chancel, which was added in 1925.The interior of the church has cream-painted, plastered walls, with simple groin vaulting, the ribs rising from carved corbel stones. The lower walls have Stations of the Cross paintings mounted in ornate, carved wooden frames. A mid 19th church hall flanks the church at the east, harled with ashlar dressings and similar Gothic detailing as the church. The south frontage has a large centre transomed and mullioned window flanked on the left by a smaller window and on the right by a door, all hoodmoulded. There is a central keystoned niche in gablet and a bellcote on the apex. Alongside the hall is the former presbytery, which was extensively re-fitted and altered in the 1930s. The churchyard has bull-faced granite gatepiers with simple caps, a decorative wrought- and cast-iron pedestrian gate under a decorative overthrow, with flanking coped bull-faced retaining walls. The OS 1st and 2nd edition maps depict shows three conjoined buildings, annotated as a Roman Catholic chapel and (on the north) a school. The northern building appears to have been removed, part of the site is occupied by the later chancel.

Img 233, 236, Img 233, 236 (Ground Photograph). SAB36064.

Author unknown, n.d., THE NORTHERN SCOT, 16/05/2014 p.21 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1270.

Record last edited

Sep 1 2022 2:43PM