Site Report

WoSASPIN 6936

NS 39 79.
The Church of Bonhill is mentioned in charters of the 14th century. In 1450, Isabella, Countess of Lennox granted this church to the Collegiate Church which she then founded at Dumbarton. After the Reformation it belonged to the Duke of Lennox and Richmond until c.1703.
G Chalmers 1890

NS 3949 7963. This is 'Bonhill Old Church' [WoSASPIN 21694] and is an entirely modern edifice. No evidence was obtained during investigation, to confirm that the pre-Reformation church occupied this site.
Visited by OS (JLD) 1 October 1956.

NS 394 796 There was a church at Bonhill in the 14th century, although the present church was not built until 1836, replacing one built in 1747.
RCAHMS 1978, visited August 1977
Orig Paroch Scot 1851-5; G Chalmers 1890

While what may be the partly curvilinear graveyard enclosure of the present church is shown on Roy's Military Survey of 1747-55 at Bonhill (or "Bonillboat" on the manuscript map), no church is indicated there or at any other location in the vicinity. It may be that the building or re-building of the church at that time, as referred to above, meant that no church was identifiable at the time of the military surveyors visit. No church site is shown at or within the policies of the Place of Bonhill (see WoSASPIN 53140) which is called "Bonill" on Roy's map but the differentiation by name of that site from the modern centre of settlement ("Bonillboat") on the east bank of the Leven might indicate that the pre-Reformation church lay on the west bank near to what must have been an earlier lordly residence at the Place of Bonhill.
Entered WoSAS (HMcB) 07/03/2006

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.
Derived from HS Listed Building Data
Entered WoSAS (MO'H) 01/06/2009

The Kirk of Binnuill is depicted at about this location on the Blaeu Atlas of 1654.
Entered WoSAS (CS) 15/02/2011

NS 39490 79625
Contrary to an earlier suggestion (see above, (HMcB) 07/03/2006), historical rental records and land grants indicate that the early church lay on the E bank of the Leven, where the most likely location remains that on which the later churches were built.
Entered WoSAS (HMcB) 30/06/2023