Description

Predominantly rebuilt 1755 incorporating earlier fabric (itself repaired and extended 1683 with burial aisle (now vestry) added to E; gabled aisle to S forming T-plan; laird's loft to E); further exterior and interior repairs and alterations 1817; W loft added 1854. T-plan, galleried church (8-bay to front) with gabled S aisle projecting at centre; exterior stairs to outer left and right; lower vestry adjoined to E; bellcote to W. Harl pointed sandstone rubble; sandstone ashlar dressings. Droved rubble quoins; raised margins; flush cills. Round arched and square headed openings.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: projecting central aisle with round arched window at centre; round-arched surround with raised keystone; carved figurative panel below (set in infilled doorway?); sandstone finial (sundial?) surmounting gablehead. 3-bay wing recessed to left with boarded timber door in gabled porch projecting at centre; gabled window breaking eaves off-set to left above; round arched windows recessed at ground in flanking bays. Remains of sandstone sundial clasping corner to left. Ball-finialled, corniced bellcote surmounting gablehead; bell in place. Exterior stair accessing boarded timber loft door recessed to outer left; sandstone treads, coped sandstone wall. 4 bay wing recessed to right of centre with boarded timber door in lean-to addition adjoining central aisle; part-obscured bull's-eye opening behind. Round-arched window in subsequent bay to right; small, square-headed window in penultimate bay to outer right; exterior stair to boarded timber loft door in bay to outer right. Lower, single storey vestry adjoined to right with pointed-arch window off-set to left of centre.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: narrow single bay, gabled projection at centre with single window at upper floor (loft porch); coped sandstone wall enclosing stair to right; stone birdcage bellcote surmounting gablehead behind.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: 4-bay nave with 2 single windows flanking centre; smaller single windows in bays to outer left and right. Square headed opening in 2-storey bay recessed to outer right (store beneath exterior stair). Plain elevation to single storey vestry recessed to outer left.

E (SIDE) ELEVATION: projecting single storey, gabled vestry with single window at centre; oval-shaped opening aligned above. Taller nave set behind with single window centred beneath apex; plain sandstone finial. Small window in lean-to porch recessed to left; plain elevation to projecting S aisle to outer left.

Small-pane glazing in timber sash and case and casement windows. Grey slate roofs; raised stone skews; plain skewputts. Replacement rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: re-plastered and re-seated 1817. Stone slab floor; timber panelled dado; plain whitewashed walls with coombed ceiling. Timber pews in place; some box pews with timber panelled doors and private communion tables. Timber panelled hexagonal pulpit centred in N wall with ogee-capped timber sounding board and surmounting urn-shaped finial. Columnar supports beneath lairds' lofts to E (Harcarse) and W (Charterhall); timber pews; painted Trotter family coat-of-arms, dated 1671 to W; painted Hog family coat-of-arms to front of E balcony, dated 1677. Timber framed organ adjoining S wall (1901). Vestry to E (former Harcarse burial aisle) with pointed arched vaulted ceiling; part whitewashed, part harl pointed rubble walls. 2 separate carved stones embedded in N wall with carved skull and crossbones to upper stone; 'Momento Mori' inscribed below; foliate, cruciform carving to lower stone.

GRAVEYARDS, BOUNDARY WALLS AND LYCH GATE: surrounding inner graveyard with later, outer graveyard to S. Various symbolic gravestones from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, including wall-mounted, table top monuments, carved with memento mori and gravestones with classical detailing. Rubble-coped rubble walls enclosing both. Earlier 20th century lych gate (World War I memorial) accessing outer graveyard with rubble plinths, timber frame, timber pedestrian gate, engraved plaque, pyramidal, pantiled roof.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Founded around 1100 and thought to have been built circa 1570. A well-detailed, originally rectangular-plan kirk, converted to a T-plan in the late 17th century - unusually with the short leg of the T to the S. Predominantly rebuilt in 1755, that which remains is a fine example of its type, with the lairds' lofts, exterior stairs, bellcote (with bell inscribed 'John Meikll me fecit Edinburgi 1694') and the surrounding graveyards in place. Inside, little has changed since 1817 - the box pews and hexagonal pulpit being particularly noteworthy. Set on the S side of the Blackadder Water, in the centre of Fogo, Rutherfurd thought the church "... ancient and beautifully situated."

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17570363

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

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)