Description

Dated 1869. Gothic cruciform church with apse, pinnacled 2-storey tower and stone spire, and baptistery. Snecked granite rubble with contrasting ashlar dressings, base course. Buttressing. Trefoil headed opening.

N ELEVATION: low gabled projection with triple lancets, star window in apex and decorative finial. Tall gabled transept to E with triple cusped lancets and star window above. Tower to left.

S ELEVATION: mirror of N elevation, but with curved baptistery projection to left.

W ELEVATION: gable end with projecting gabled porch with pointed arch boarded door, decorative ironmongery. Flanking lancets, multifoil window above. Decorative masonry finials to gable apex.

TOWER: to NE corner, 2 stage tower with spire. Lancets to tall 1st stage, louvred lights to belfry above with angled margins and angled pinnacles. Gabled clock panels to each face at base of spire. Broached spire with coronet and weathervane.

Grey slate, small gablet ventilators near ridge. Diamond glazing pattern, stained glass to apse, remainder with red painted glass surrounds. Cast iron rainwater goods with dated hoppers.

INTERIOR: restrained ecclesiastical interior, body of church painted with large gothic arch leading to apse. Timber hammerbeam ceiling springing from stone corbels Polished marble columns support double pointed arches to transepts. Timber pews, prominent carved pulpit to apse. Carved oak communion table.

Statement of Interest

This building is still in ecclesiastical use, and is the parish church for Braemar. It was formerly the Free Church. Architecturally the church is a fashionable Victorian Gothic. The architect of the church is reputedly R Lamb from Darlington, although no records of this architect are extant (DSA). The use of materials is in keeping with the character of the area, although the decorative finials and rainwater goods demonstrate that this was an important building to the community and the area in general; the spire in particular is a notable village landmark.

The church stands on the site of a previous building, built in 1845, which was taken down and rebuilt in Aberarder. The building of the present church was masterminded by the Minister, Hugh Cobham, who died on the eve of its completion, and is buried behind the pulpit. The existence of this church, despite the presence of the parish church built in 1830, demonstrates the divisions which took place in the Church of Scotland with the Disruption of 1843. This required a new building to house the new Free Church congregation. Significantly, despite the union of the Free Church and the Church of Scotland in 1929, it was not until 1945 that the two Braemar congregations met in one building.

The church stands in Auchendryne, which is unusual as this was historically the Catholic area of Braemar.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776956

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)