Murroes Parish Church, Murroes

Murroes Parish Church, designed by William Scott and dated 1848, features an earlier burial vault. This T-plan church is a simple Gothic structure made of stugged snecked rubble sandstone with margined ashlar dressings and a grey slate roof. It has pointed windows with hoodmoulds and label stops, geometric tracery on the south side, and a wheel window with a moulded architrave at both the east and west gables. The doorways are pointed arches with chamfered reveals, and the church includes diagonal buttresses, moulded saddleback-coped skews with skewputts, and cruciform finials at the north and east gables.

On the west elevation, there is a gabled porch at the advanced right gable featuring a two-leaf door with an inscribed shield, diagonal buttresses, and windows on the left and right returns, topped with a fleur-de-lys finial. Above the porch, there is a window and a corbelled octagonal birdcage bellcote at the apex, which has pointed-arch openings, gablets, and a pinnacled roof, along with a chain and bell-pull for the bell. A square-plan stair tower is located at the left re-entrant angle, with a door and a window on the left return. At the far left, there is a recessed bay with a door and a heraldic panel above it, dated 1642 (with the number 4 missing).

The north gable features a stepped three-light window at the center, with heraldic shields and inscriptions ?TF? and ?MG? on the left and right sides. The east elevation is similar to the west elevation but includes an angle stack at the re-entrant bay and lacks the bellcote. The south elevation has an inscribed date panel at the center, with two windows on the left and right.

Inside, the church has a fine panelled pulpit on the south wall, flanked by two flights of stairs with turned balusters, and an ornate octagonal tester with a crown spire and crocketted finials. The pews are likely original, with two box pews flanking the pulpit. Stained glass windows on the south, east, and west sides are probably by C and L Ower from the 1880s. The ceiling is simple, coombed, and ribbed. There is a carved screen in the north aisle featuring stained glass that depicts the McGavin of Ballumbie family arms, along with a moulded stone panel displaying eight family arms and names on the east wall. A panelled gallery includes a small organ.