Description

Built 1779. T-plan church with central tall 3-stage square tower on long south wall. Repaired and renovated 1845 and1864-5. Coursed and squared red rubble with ashlar dressings. South elevation: tower has square-headed openings, lower stage originally with door at ground, now blocked, 1 window above; 2 openings vertically arranged in 2nd stage; forestair in re-entrant angle; top stage (possibly 1864-5) has louvred belfry opening with central column to each face, and pierced parapet: 2 tall, round-arched and keystoned windows either side of tower gabled porch on east and west flanks: 2-bay jamb (with late 19th century addition) has round-headed gallery windows above 12-pane sashes. Piended roofs with graded slates. Interior: gallery sealed up to form hall; organ with carved case; flat ceiling, with roof timbers on brackets; acorn light hanging. Two church bells of medieval date from a former abbey church at this location. One bell has an armorial and initials. The other is inscribed.

Irregular-plan churchyard enclosure, rubble-built ashlar-coped walls; gate to west, 2 octagonal rusticated ashlar gatepiers, hearse-house alongside, and stile. Some good 18th and 19th century stone monuments: Classical mausoleum at north west built of ashlar with stone slab roof, door with battered jambs central on pedimented east gable, pilasters divide bays: Renaissance-style Johnstone of Cowhill mural monument.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building no longer in use as such. Bells noted in RCAHM INVENTORY, 1920, no. 285.

Holywood Parish Church has special architectural and historic interest as a major example of an intact later 18th century parish church that retains its plan-form, exterior details, interior fixtures and rural churchyard setting with related structures and memorials. It stands on or close to the site of Holywood Abbey, a later medieval Premonstratensian abbey, of which no upstanding remains survive. Stone from the abbey was used in the construction of the present church. The church bells, which hung in the former abbey church, are part of the special interest of the building and contribute to an understanding of the earlier ecclesiastical history and development of the site. The church tower is a prominent landmark in the wider landscape. The church remains legible as part of a group of related stone-built structures that bear witness to the historic function of the site as a place of worship and burial.

Supplementary information in the listed building record revised in 2022.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17804488

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.

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