Description

David Cousin, 1854, S transept added 1862, N transept 1873, chancel extended 1921, vestry built on S side of church 1929. English Gothic style, gabled church; irregular square-plan but reads as approximate cruciform; whinstone with polished honey-coloured sandstone dressings and details; stugged margins. Plate and geometric traceried windows; hoodmoulds, label stops; low, saw-tooth coped, staggered angle buttresses; base course. Steeply-pitched roofs.

E ELEVATION: broad gabled nave at centre with transepts recessed to left and right, porches set in re-entrant angles. Deep base course, tall 3-light geometric traceried window at centre; honey-coloured shouldered gabled sandstone bellcote, cross finial. Window on right return; porch set in re-entrant angle to right, Tudor-arched door, (boarded with cast-iron hinges and handle), bipartite window to right; gabled porch on left return.

S ELEVATION: 1862, symmetrical M-gable transept, 2-light geometric traceried window, figurative water spout at centre (possibly re-used from earlier building); memorial plaque at ground of outer right gable. Gabled porch to outer right, pointed arch doorway. 1929 T-plan vestry block to outer left in re-entrant angle; canted-end memorial chapel aligned SW-NE, 2-light lancets; piend-roofed block projecting to S, cruciform arrowslit window; chamfered door to right.

N ELEVATION: 1873, M-gable transept, 2-light geometric traceried window to left, window to right 3-light with tracery replaced by pierced roundels (Oliphant stained glass window removed here in 1921 following enlarging of chancel). Tall gabled block, accommodating organ, recessed in re-entrant angle against chancel to right, coped apex stack; 2-light lancet on right return. Chancel with 3-light geometric traceried window at centre.

Leaded and stained glass windows. Grey slate roof, ashlar ridging, ashlar coping to skews.

INTERIOR: The interior with exceptional stained glass. Chancel rubble with dark wood dado, transepts painted, box-pew type seating. High, pointed chancel arch; stained glass chancel window serves as Rosneath and Clynder War Memorial, Stephen Adams, Glasgow; carving of Last Supper below window by Meredith Williams, donated by Princess Louisa 1931. Organ to right gifted by Princess Louisa in 1875, 2 Manual Tracker organ set on carved wooden casing made by Hills. Queen Victoria's bible rests on altar table, gifted by Princess Louisa in 1917; communion cups, 1585 AD by John Mosman, Edinburgh. At N side of chancel arch is St Modan's stone. Bell in N transept, taken from old church, inscribed 'Ian Burgerhuis me fecit 1610 Soli dei Gloria?; window in N transept donated by Mrs Oliphant, 19th century author, was former chancel window. Window to John Leod Campbell in E gable. 2 windows in S transept by Dr Douglas Strachan, 1908 and 1915. Former reredos of 10 commandments painted in cloth over wood now on E wall of S transept, by A Maitland 1862.

Statement of Interest

St Modan's church was designed in 1854 by David Cousin who designed a number of churches on the west coast. The church was built to replace the now ruined kirk of 1780 which is listed separately.

The church commands a central site in the Rosneath village conservation area. It has some interesting historical associations and has a fine interior with some good stained glass windows. The 1610 Burgerhuis bell was used in 1715 to call parishioners to the first Jacobite rising, and was apparently mentioned in Walter Scott's "Heart of Midlothian". The reredos of the Last Supper was gifted in 1931 by Princess Loiuse in memory of the 8th and 9th Dukes of Argyll, the artist Meredith Williams and his wife designed the frieze in the Memorial Chapel in Edinburgh Castle.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q1550564

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

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