Site Report

WoSASPIN 21694

1836 with some modern additions and alterations. Tudor-gothic hall church with and tower, rectangular-plan church. Coursed pink sandstone ashlar with ashlar margins and dressings. Deep base course; hoodmoulds; string course; clasping buttresses; eaves moulding; chamfered reveals. E (MAIN) ELEVATION: integral/engaged 3-stage battlemented tower; 3-centred-arch door at centre at ground, roll-moulded surround; hoodmould; 2-light Y-tracery window above; clock set in lozenge at string course dividing 2nd, 3rd stage; 3-light window at upper stage; colonetted quoins at upper 2 stages; battlemented parapet; octagonal pinnacles. Flanking buttressed bay; 2-light tall Y-traceried windows; clasping buttresses. N ELEVATION: 3-bay chancel with 4th narrow bay to outer left; 2-light Y-tracery windows. S ELEVATION: 4 bays as other elevation; modern addition at centre; full-height piend-roofed, chamfered corners; rendered with reconstituted stone dressing; pointed arch door on return; lancets. W ELEVATION: broad gable; formerly 3 lancets; later gabled red brick bay advanced at centre; sandstone quatrefoil at centre of gablehead; 1930s flat-roofed vestry block at groun; rendered, cement margins. INTERIOR: interior much altered, church made smaller by creation of additional offices and meeting rooms. Main entrance no longer serves church. Some original church furniture, communion table Misses Dennistoun Brown, Mrs Stevenson, October 1915; new gallery. Stained glass in church to Alexander James Dennistoun Brown of Balloch, 1885; Alexander Smollett of Bonhill, 1881. Stained glass on stair to hall, Rachel Sword Kippen and William James Kippen of Westerton and Busby by Robert Milligan of Glasgow. 1940s glass to McAllister family Woodburn and GRAVEYARD: number of interesting grave memorials, inlcuding engraved slab stone to covenanter Robert Nairn, died 1685, to S side of church. Particularly interesting are burial enclosures against S boundary wall. These include THE ARTHURS OF LEVENBANK MAUSOLEUM: 1797. Pink sandstone ashlar. Classical. Pedimented with fluted pilasters. Roofless. TURNBULL MAUSOLEUM: stugged sandstone ashlar, segmental-headed door, blocking course; ashlar triangular section pillars. Angel sclupture. Roofless, remains of acroteria within. BUCHANAN OF ARDOCH MAUSOLEUM: 1808, Classical, segmental-headed doorway, triangular pediment above; inscribed plaque within. Venetian Gothic gabled burial enclosure along E boundary wall. BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: low stugged red sandstone rubble wall with harl-pointing; semicircular coping.
Ecclesiastical building partly in use as such. The church is designed along a William Burn formula. The interior of the church has been substantially altered with the church proper much reduced and the remaining rooms used as meeting rooms.
G Hay ARCHITECTURE OF THE SCOTTISH POST REFORMATION CHURCHES p254; Iain Galbraith BY THE RIVERS OF WATER - POTRAIT OF BONHILL PARISH (1989); 3rd STATISTICAL ACCOUNT p187.
Derived from HS Listed Buildings data.
Entered WoSAS (CF) 19/09/01

May occupy the site of the earlier church in Bonhill - WoSASPIN 6936.
Entered WoSAS (CF) 19/09/01