Westray Parish Old Church, North Isles, Orkney Islands

Entry Name: Westray Parish Old Church

Listing Name: Westray Parish Church (Church of Scotland) Including Boundary Walls and Ancillary Structure

Listing Date: 4 February 2000

Category: C

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 394048

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB46706

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200394048

Location: Westray

County: Orkney Islands

Electoral Ward: North Isles

Parish: Westray

Traditional County: Orkney

Tagged with: Church building

Description

1845. Single storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan church. Harled.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: symmetrical elevation. Advanced, central gabled porch; small central window; boarded timber doors to left and right returns. Ground floor window to right and left of porch; smaller windows centred above. Small central, slatted ventilation opening below eaves.

S ELEVATION: 3 regularly placed windows.

W ELEVATION: tall, pointed arched window to right and left; intersecting tracery. Small, central opening (now blocked) below eaves. Advanced, central gabled porch; window to right. Advanced porch to re-entrant angles; boarded timber door to each; swept roofs.

N ELEVATION: 3 regularly placed windows.

Predominantly 24-pane timber sash and case windows and smaller 16-pane windows. Part piended, Caithness slate roof. Coped gable end stack to W porch; circular can.

INTERIOR: yellow painted walls. Entrance hallway to E; stair to N leading to gallery. 2 doors lead into church; 3 sets of simple timber pews. Elevated pulpit to W; flanking steps. Panelled timber pulpit; ogee canopy to sounding board; surmounted by carved dove. Boarded shutters to flanking pointed-arched windows; architraved boarded door centred below windows. Panelled gallery to E, on stop-chamfered timber columns. All woodwork painted light blue and white. Boarded and ribbed timber ceiling.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND ANCILLARY STRUCTURE

Rubble coped boundary walls to N, E and W incorporating ancillary structure to NW corner. Single storey shed; boarded timber door to E; rubble walls; corrugated asbestos roof.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building, in use as such (2000). Westray Parish Church, also referred to as the Old Kirk, is a simple, barn-like structure. Much of the original exterior detailing survives, notably the pointed-arched windows in the W gable with tracery. The particularly decorative pulpit, in the open nave, is surmounted by the carved dove of the Holy Spirit.

External Links

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