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Summary

Description

This church was built in 1792 and restored in 1884-5. It is a rectangular-plan, 4-bay church, orientated east-west, with a single-storey vestry adjoining to the north. The building is built with roughly squared and coursed rubble with stugged ashlar dressings with round-headed windows except in the vestry.

West elevation: there is a door in the centre of the gable with small windows flanking it and a taller window above. This elevation has an ashlar belfry dated 1690, within which there is a 1747 bell. The belfry is surmounted by 5 obelisk and ball finials which have been re-used from the earlier building. The belfry also bears date the 1880 and initials.

South elevation: this elevation has 4 tall windows.

East elevation: there is a large window in the gable; the vestry adjoins on right of this elevation with a door to the basement. There are two windows above the door.

North elevation: this elevation has two windows on the church itself; the vestry is at right angles on the east end with a boarded door with a strip fanlight and 2 irregular windows to the left. The vestry has sash and case windows.

Interior: this was remodelled in 1884-5. There is a gallery on 3 sides, supported by marbled cast-iron columns. The pulpit and organ are located in front of the east window with an altar table below.

Retaining Wall: this is rubble construction with gatepiers on the south-west side with hooped wrought-iron gates.

Mounting Block: this is located outside the churchyard on the south side. It comprises 4 ashlar steps.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: scheduled monument SM342 (see separate designation record).

Statement of Special Interest

Place of Worship. Built in 1792, the church was considered "old fashioned" and "barn-looking" by 1842 (NSA). Old Marnoch Church holds an important place in the history of the Disruption; the congregation left in protest in 1841, following the appointment of Rev John Edwards as Minister, against their wishes. This infringement of the right to choose their own minister led to their departure to Aberchirder, where New Marnoch Church was built as a Secession Church, later Free Church of Scotland, (listed separately under Aberchirder Burgh). Both churches were reunited as Church of Scotland in 1929, although the congregations remained separate until 1953. The joint church is now administered from Aberchirder.

The bell, housed in the bellcote from an earlier church sited in the graveyard to the south, may be the oldest English bell in Scotland, cast at Whitechapel in London in 1747. The later date and initials on the bellcote presumably commemorate the interior refurbishment of 1884-5.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: scheduled monument SM342 (see separate designation record).

Statutory Address revised in 2018. Previously listed as 'MARNOCH, OLD CHURCH WITH RETAINING WALL, STANDING STONES AND MOUNTING BLOCK'.

References

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