Description

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 1935-52. Modern gothic church sited on falling ground. Nave and aisles, shallow, square ended chancel and single short transept on N side. Square tower at W end with crenellated parapet and octagonal stair tower on N side.

External stonework pink, stugged, squared and snecked granite, polished granite dressings and copings. Base course, battered above to cill level of aisles. Modillions to aisle wallheads, nave parapet with moulded coping. Gable ends of aisles and transept crowstepped, curvilinear detail at junction with crenellation of porches. Buttresses dividing aisle windows, and on E wall, pilaster-like angle buttresses to tower, clasping buttresses to porches. Interior with en-suite furnishings and form achieving striking verticality.

TOWER: 4-light louvered lancets on each face, 2-light louvered lancet on N face, chimney and octagonal stair tower with crenellated parapet and occasional windows to left. Large triple lancet in W elevation, illuminating baptistery.

S ELEVATION: 4-bay aisle. Porch to W end of aisle, moulded entrance doorway set behind pointed arch, with niche and crenellated parapet above. Bays 2 to 5, 4-light diamond-paned leaded lancets. 2 lancets with trefoil tracery at E end illuminating chancel.

E ELEVATION: gable end to nave and chancel, buttresses set back from corners, moulded cope, stepped at corners, carved cross at apex.

N (CORRAN BRAE) ELEVATION: 7-bay aisle, buttresses between bays. Porch at W end of aisle (bay 7), step moulded entrance doorway set behind pointed arch, with niche and crenellated parapet above. 4-light diamond-paned leaded lancets, cill heights of outer bays to left stepping up with street level. Lancet window with trefoil tracery at east end illuminating chancel.

W (CORRAN ESPLANADE) ELEVATION: small stair arrowslits and bipartite windows on 1st and 2nd floors of porches, diamond-pane leaded glazing. Plinth at ground level. Grey slate roofs of different pitches to aisles, nave and transept. Terracotta ridge to transept, cast-iron gutters with downpipes into buttresses. Nave parapet gutters drained by lead spouts to aisle roofs. Tower drained by spouts through E parapet into hoppers.

INTERIOR: internal stonework, base course of squared and snecked pink granite, walls above of stugged, squared and snecked grey granite. Columns and dressings of pink droved granite. Heavy wooden doors with good ironmongery. Square entrance porch with enclosed stair tower in corner, font set into window cill. Nave, 6-bay side aisle arcade to S, 7-bay side aisle arcade to N. Nave arcade columns with octagonal

bases, circular shafts and square capitals. Pointed arches with flat soffits between. Ceiling; open timber roof, 9 trusses supporting purlins, trusses supported on small, plain corbels. Aisle windows expressed internally with grid pattern of mullions, cill and lintel, hence strong impression of verticality. Carved timber relief stations of the cross between. Ogee-arched entrance doors in SW, NW, and SE corners of nave. Baptistery in base of tower, with contemporary pink granite baptismal font, copper cover. Large pointed arch connecting

baptistery with nave. Chancel, curvilinear-arched piscina with shelf and projecting bowl in S wall, canons' stalls, original altar extant with sacrament house. Reredos, carved stone frame with decorated timber panel and canopy. Altar screen, 2 courses of granite surmounted

by timber rail. Pulpit integral with base of S choir screen column.

Lady chapel, reredos with doors in front of granite arcaded organ screen. Altar of geometrically patterned sandstones of different colours. Square lintelled piscina in SE corner. Sacred Heart chapel, timber canopy shaped as pitched roof with carved dove, suspended from ceiling. Polished ashlar altar with marble top, square recess in SE corner. Low, integral, boundary wall to N and S of tower base.

Statement of Interest

Foundation stone to this building was laid by the Right Rev Donald Martin on the 14th September 1932. This building is of high quality design and construction.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• St Columba's Cathedral at Wikipedia
• St Columba's Cathedral official website
• Wikidata Q723359

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

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments