Cranston Parish Church

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 22/01/1971 Local Authority Midlothian Planning Authority Midlothian Parish Cranston NGR NT 38431 65566 Coordinates 338431, 665566 — 1824. Restored 1861, Wardrop. Enlarged circa 1875, Wardrop and Reid. T-plan Gothic kirk with 3-stage tower and enlarged N aisle. Droved, tooled and polished sandstone ashlar. Diagonal buttresses with crocketed and pinnacled spirelets to nave, octagonal castellations on tower. Splayed window surrounds with sloping sills. Base, string and eaves course. E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: TOWER: 1st stage: hoodmoulded pointed segmental doorway, 2-leaf boarded door with curved wrought-iron hinges; pointed segmental architraved doorway to left return; lancet window in architraved arched surround to right return, later stone lean-to in re-entrant angle with N elevation; inset plaque above door inscribed ERECTED IN 1824, DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1861 AND RESTORED THE SAME YEAR, string course above, diagonal buttresses to each corner, stepped at each stage. 2nd stage: hoodmoulded, pointed segmental 2-light window with multifoil light above to each face, diagonal buttresses to each corner terminating in sloped skew. 3rd stage: pointed segmental louvred 2-light window with multifoil light above to each face, architraved coping, octagonal buttresses to each corner terminating in castellated towers. S ELEVATION: pair of hoodmoulded, pointed segmental 3 trefoil topped lights with paired hexagon lights above; stepped gabled buttresses between (marble sundial plate from old church, dated 1797 inset) and to flanks of windows, diagonal buttress of W elevation to W end, diagonal stepped buttress with gablets terminating in stepped crocket and pinnacle spire to right return (E gable end), decorative balustrade adjoining rear buttress of tower. W (REAR)

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.