Auld Kirk (Former Free Church) Inlcuding Boundary Walls

Heritage listing

Category C Date Added 14/11/2006 Local Authority Aberdeenshire Planning Authority Aberdeenshire Parish Glenbuchat National Park Cairngorms NGR NJ 37674 16293 Coordinates 337674, 816293 — 1861. Simple rectangular-plan former Free Church with 4-bay aisless nave, gable bellcote, pointed arch openings, and louvered oculus. Sited in small group with former manse, ancillary incorporating stable, coach house and Sunday school, and walled garden. Ashlar with harled sides and rear. Voussoirs and chamfered reveals. Further Description: S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: symmetrical gabled elevation. Boarded timber door to centre with louvered oculus above, tall lancets in flanking bays and stone bellcote in gablehead. E AND W ELEVATIONS: each with 4 tall lancets. N (REAR) ELEVATION: gabled elevation with 2 tall lancets, small pitch-roofed porch at outer left and low timber structure at right. Leaded diamond pattern glazing. Grey slates. Polygonal can to squat gablehead stack at N and ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts. BOUNDARY WALLS: coped rubble boundary walls with coped, square-section ashlar end pier at SE. — Ecclesiastical building no longer in use as such. Group with Auld Kirk House (former Free Church manse). The Free Church group represents a fine, virtually unaltered example of a small charge which became the focal point of religious life in the Glen owing to its more convenient siting than the Parish Church. Locating a site for the new Free Church was not easy, and the Free Church Annals record that 'After great difficulty and much discouragement a site was obtained at Balnacraig in 1861, and a church and manse were erected'. The Third Statistical Account recognises that 'As there are no other denominations, the church is part and parcel of the life of the community', and c

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.