Description

Attributed to Robert Robertson, 1907. 4-bay, rectangular-plan, buttressed church with square entrance tower and small piended vestry to NE corner. Rubble stonework with rounded stone quoins to window margins. Base course; dentil band; crenellated parapet. Corner bartizans to tower; stone cruciform apex finial to gable. Pointed arch entrance door flanked by narrow lucarne windows. Pointed arch windows and timber louvered belfry ventilators to tower.

Square-paned margined leaded windows to vestry and smaller lucarned windows; modern fixed timber plate glass casements to main windows. 2-leaf timber-boarded entrance doors. Small grey slate roof. Stone skews. Stone stack to vestry with plain clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: impressive well-crafted timber roof structure dominates the interior. 5 shallow arched trusses on timber corbels with 3 level tie beams between, all with pointed trefoil arched braces; curved herringbone panel detailing extending to corbel stops. Tongue and groove timber panelling to dado height; 12 rows of timber pews with ornately carved ends; timber pulpit and communion table; font. Quarry tiles to entrance porch. Corner chimney piece to vestry.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical Building in use as such.

Coll Parish Church is a simply planned gothic style church with some good plain exterior detailing very prominently sited on the hill over looking the village at the head of Loch Eatharna. The ornately crafted Arts and Crafts style timber ceiling to the interior is of a high quality and a rare design with the vaulted timber panelled sections being of particular note.

The church architect is thought to be an early work of Robert Robertson about whom little is known except that he was Inverness County Architect in the 1930's, building Schools on Barra and South Uist.

The church is built from Lewiscian Gneiss stone, the only widely available building stone on the island; it has a grey appearance and similar qualities to granite.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780763

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide