Riccarton Parish Church, Kilmarnock, Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire

Description

John Richmond, 1823; additions and alterations, 1911. Classical, square-plan church with angle pilasters and shallow projection to W; 4-stage tower and spire. Red stugged sandstone with polished dressings. Elevated church on railed stone terrace, reached by ashlar steps.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3-bay W front, central bay wider and projecting with angle pilasters supporting cornice. Central door with entablature and baroque curved pediment, supported on paired, engaged Roman Doric columns. Central Venetian and 2 outer, single lights above. "1823" in similarly detailed Baroque main pediment. Recessed bays with single light windows, those in ground pedimented as door. Tower with cornice at each stage, angle pilasters above 1st. Round-arched windows in 2nd stage, glazed to W elevation, blind to others; black clock with gold hands and Roman numerals to each face in 3rd stage; 4th stage hexagonal with small round-arched louvred openings. Hexagonal-plan spire with rollmoulding at each angle and weathervane.

N ELEVATION: 4-bay side elevations, with blind Y-tracery windows to ground floor and intersecting tracery to gallery windows, giant order angle pilasters supporting moulded eaves course and cornice, right return of N extension to left.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: smaller extension to ground floor left: single window, door and paired windows to left return, recesses rear of original building above with blind former window to1st floor left. Double-height extension to right concealing original elevation: tripartite window to centre, left return adjoining single storey extension, right return not seen.

S ELEVATION: 4-bay side elevations, with blind Y-tracery window to 1st bay ground floor and intersecting tracery to gallery windows; moulded eaves course, giant angle pilasters supporting projecting cornice, squared angle caps.

Y-traceried windows to sides of ground floor, intersecting tracery to gallery windows, squared and diamond quarry - some coloured glass, some now blind. Piended grey slate roof to main body of church and of later rear extension. Lead ridging, flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods with squared hoppers. Later rainwater goods to rear extension.

INTERIOR: not seen (undergoing refurbishment, 2001).

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS, GATES AND RAILINGS: coursed ashlar walls with coursers and segmental copes terminating in squared ashlar piers with small squared caps, low walls leading to gatepiers. Pair of high square gatepiers to S & E walls with moulded projecting neck copes and squared cushion caps. Later painted wrought-iron plain railings to walls. 2-leaf wrought-iron gates with arched panel to centre with scrolled detail. Plain wrought-iron railings flanking ashlar steps leading up mount to church, paired red sandstone panelled gatepiers at head of stairs with squared caps, further pier to angles of enclosure, low ashlar wall with plain wrought-iron railings

KIRKYARD: from late 17th century; renovated late 19th century. Random rubble wall with flat copes and plain railings enclosing raised burial mound. High stone gatepiers to S elevation with locked wrought-iron gates. Many carved gravestones; some later stones with emblematic representations for ploughmen, weavers; later Gothic family tombs, etc.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Riccarton was created a barony in 1638. An "auld Kirk" stood within the confines of the kirkyard. It was described as small, damp and dingy. It was dismantled when the new church was constructed on the mound. The consecrated stones of the old kirk were used to construct a new public house at the end of the bridge in Riccarton. The old kirkyard remained with the new church. A church has serving the village of Riccarton was granted by Walter, High Steward of Scotland, to the Convent of Dalmullin in 1229. In 1283 it was given to Paisley Abbey. During the Reformation it was plundered, and patronage and tithes were given to Lord Claud Hamilton. It was passed to the Cunninghames of Caprington at the close of the reign of Charles II with whom it remained until patronage ended. Rev. Alexander Moodie was in his 40th year of ministry when he died in 1799, and served in the Auld Kirk. Burns knew him well - "a hot preacher and utterances would have shocked any but those he addressed" and he mentioned him in "The Holy Fair". The new church was built in 1823. Plans signed by John Richmond (a Riccarton millwright) are preserved there. The design of the church and spire is similar to that of Tarbolton Church (1821) by Robert Johnstone. It is believed that Johnstone was the architect and Richmond the executant. The church is built on the old "moot or court hill" of the district, the seat of the judicial executive in feudal times. When it was built, earth from the foundations was used to change the course of the river at East Shaw Street. The original "auld" churchyard is separated from the "new" church by New Street. The kirkyard has many ancient graves; the oldest recorded as being 1641. These older stones are rudely carved and bear unusual devices. The "newer" stones have emblematic representations of the occupation of the deceased, e.g. weavers shuttle and reed, pair of shears, plough drawn by oxen. Tombs were also erected to the Cunninghames of Caprington and the Campbells of the (original) Treesbank. The kirkyard and walls were renovated in the late 19th century. The church and kirkyard are two of the few surviving structures of the old village of Riccarton.

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