St Mary's Chapel And Parish Church, Carmyllie

St Mary's Chapel and Parish Church, Carmyllie

This Grade B listed church is a well-detailed parish church occupying a commanding site overlooking glebe land. The building began as a rectangular-plan church in 1609, featuring a Renaissance gable belfry. It was altered during the 1780s, then significantly expanded with the addition of a north aisle in 1836. The church was further enlarged and remodelled internally in 1874 by James MacLaren of the Dundee practice MacLaren and Aitken, which introduced a large T-shaped projection at the north and a dominant gable at the south. The church is grouped with a hearse house and former manse, both listed separately, and sits within enclosure walls forming a graveyard.

The exterior is constructed of grey and pink sandstone ashlar—some dressed and some squared rubble—with ashlar quoins and margins. The base course is raised, and part of the eaves course is shaped. The building features 2-stage buttresses and a variety of window openings: pointed-arch, trefoil-headed, rose, quatrefoil, traceried and shouldered designs, all with raked cills, chamfered reveals and stone mullions.

The symmetrical principal elevation faces south with a dominant centre gable added in 1874, incorporating a small sundial below a rose window flanked by tall memorial windows and a glazed quatrefoil in the gablehead. The outer bays, dating to 1609, are lower and slightly set back; the left bay contains blocked openings including a leper's squint. The east and west gables are lower with raised centre trefoil-headed tripartite windows. The north elevation is gabled in two stages with three bays; traceried windows occupy the second stage, and a small gabled porch with a timber door and decorative ironwork projects from the left return.

Windows feature leaded diamond-pattern glazing, some coloured, along with stained glass. The roof is covered in small grey Scots slate with stone ridges, ashlar-coped skews and moulded skewputts; those to the low east gable are carved to depict human heads. A birdcage belfry with ball finials, bell and weathervane sits atop the building. A stone Celtic cross finial crowns the south gable. Cast iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers complete the external detailing.

The interior retains fine period details including a hammerbeam-type roof, boarded dadoes, and fixed timber pews. A fragment of the laird's pew, dated 1657, survives. A north gallery features decorative clock detailing. The pulpit and organ are carved. The stained glass includes a 1903 rose window given by James Wright, a quarrymaster, in memory of his parents; 1908 windows commemorating Rev Patrick Bell as inventor and minister; and a 1930s panel by Horatio John Greensmith depicting St Columba's arrival in Scotland.

The graveyard contains an important collection of gravestones dating from the 18th century and later, many finely carved with well-preserved death emblems. The earlier stones predominantly display moulded apex design with varied emblems: farmers' and tailors' trade emblems such as ploughs, scissors and flat irons; mortality emblems showing winged souls and hourglasses; intricate heraldic devices and fine copperplate writing. One stone dated 1808 with initials 'JT' and 'JA' features an unusual relief-carved plant pot with two flowerheads. Nineteenth-century stones include a simple pink marble columnar stone of square section commemorating Rev Patrick Bell, died 1869. The rubble-walled enclosure was extended in 1869.

The boundary walls consist of low saddleback-coped rubble walls with inset ironwork railings to the east, coped square-section ashlar gatepiers and gates. Semicircular-coped rubble enclosure walls complete the boundary definition.