Description

Probably Archibald Elliot, 1809, with James Burn, overseeing architect. Simple Gothic church with tower. Rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings (Abbeymains Quarry); base course, rolled cornice and blocking course; moulded jambs and stone mullions.

TOWER: adjoined to W end of nave; 3-stage, string course dividing and angle buttresses to 2nd stage; round arched doorway with cavetto and roll-moulded surround, hoodmould; 2-leaf doors. Tripartite lancet windows in 2nd stage to W, N and S, and louvred round arched tripartites to each face at 3rd stage. Crenellated parapet between elongated diess bearing crocketted pinnacles.

NAVE: 2-bay; hoodmoulded lancets flanking tower; Y-traceried pointed arch windows to each bay of N and S elevations, and to E gable end.

Timber diamond-pane glazing patterns, in sash and case windows to N and S. Grey slates.

INTERIOR: simple. Painted plastered walls with moulded cornice and comb ceiling. central aisle. Gallery with box-pews, at W end; 2 flights of winding stone stiars; clustered cast-iron columns. Decorative electric "gas-lamp" centre lights. Stained glass windows at E end of Martha at the Tomb. Simple Gothic pine communion table, pulpit and organ cases.

STUART MAUSOLEUM: circa 1800. Mausoleum of the Stuarts of Eaglescairnie. Square plan symmetrical, neo-classical ashlar cube and dome; base and blocking courses, and moulded cornice. Recessed round arched panels in each face; arrow slits at centre of 3 sides, doorway in 4th, boarded door. Low ashlar coped rubble enclosure adjoined to doorway elevation.

HEARSE HOUSE: gabled rectangular plan hearse house, linking with adjoining stables of former manse, set in graveyard walls to E. Rubble with ashlar coped skews; carriage doors to W end; ventilation slits to sides.

RETAINING WALLS: rubble, coped retaining walls.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such (Church of Scotland). A grave-guard stands in the vestibule at the foot of the tower, with rods and skews; an accompanying panel explains its origin after the 1832 Anatomy Act, which required that such be placed over the graves of the recently dead to defeat attempts to "Resurrectionists" or "Body-snatchers". Agnes Burns, mother of the poet, and 2 of her children, are buried at the church, and a bronze commemorative plaque on the retaining walls, announces this fact. The parishes of Yester, Humbie and Bolton have laterally been linked together.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17796116

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)