East Wall And Gate, Rhu Parish Church, Church Road, Rhu

Rhu Parish Church, Church Road, Rhu

The church is a cruciform-plan Gothic building designed by William Spense in 1851, with a nave added by Honeyman and Keppie in 1891 and further additions at the east side in 1938. The principal elevation (southeast) faces liturgically westward and is the most impressive aspect, featuring a symmetrical ashlar front with an entrance tower at its centre, flanked by buttressed bays with recessed harled transepts to either side. The tower is two-staged and pinnacled with diagonal buttresses, rising to an octagonal lantern that is itself two-staged and pinnacled. A moulded pointed-arch door occupies the ground stage with blank shields above it on either side; the second stage contains a large three-light pointed-arch window beneath a modillion cornice. Tall pinnacles with octagonal shafts stand at the tower corners. The octagonal lantern features full-height pilaster strips dividing each facet, with louvred windows and bipartite and single windows at the first stage, and pointed Y-tracery alternating with lancets at the upper stage. A clock dated 1881 is positioned between the stages. The parapet is deeply moulded and supported on generous consoles, featuring pierced crosses with dies and ashlar pinnacles. The flanking bays are crenellated and buttressed with mullioned reticulated tracery windows. Harled transepts flank the tower, with pointed-arch windows to the left bay.

The northeast elevation shows a gabled transept to the left and a two-bay nave to the right. A 1938 single-storey rectangular church hall extension in harled rubble is built against the nave wall, obscuring the traceried windows and buttresses of the nave at ground level. The transept displays bipartite pointed windows, and the northwest gable holds paired windows with a two-leaf door bearing the date 1838 carved into the lintel. A large three-light traceried window lights the transept gable, with a two-leaf half-glazed door to its right.

The southwest elevation shows the gabled transept to the outer right, with a 1938 flat-roofed addition built against the transept in the re-entrant angle. The two-bay nave features a buttress, with a modern wooden and glazed door at ground level to the outer left.

The northwest elevation (at the east end) has a gable with a large window at its centre and flanking buttresses. Modern inserted windows with deep splays occur at ground level to the outer right and left, and a 1938 block stands to the outer left.

The exterior walls are ashlar-fronted with cream harl and pink sandstone dressings and margins, base courses, quoin strips, hoodmoulds, and chamfered reveals. Pointed-arch geometric traceried windows throughout contain leaded and stained glass. The roof is covered in grey slate with ashlar coping to the skews and skewputts, which feature decorative brackets.

The interior entrance hall is paved with minto tiles and has a boarded ceiling with a centre rosette. A gothic war memorial stands here, with a stone stair featuring decorative cast-iron balusters and wooden handrail leading to upper rooms. The main body of the church features a plasterwork ribbed ceiling springing from slender colonettes with floral capitals, centred with an embossed rosette. Ash pews fill the nave. The organ and altar are positioned at the centre of the southeast end. The altar table, dedicated in 1911 to Rosina Douglas Drew of Ardincaple, features a carving of the Last Supper on its front. A matching-period lectern stands nearby. A marble and granite free-standing font occupies the northeast side of the church. Stained glass windows are dedicated to various local notables, including Robert Michael Donaldson of Blairvadoch and John McLeod Campbell, minister of Rhu. A black marble memorial honours Robert Napier of West Shandon.

The 1930s church hall features high polished wood dado panelling and dividing doors, with memorial plaques to the Keyden family and Albert Black of Largarie.

The graveyard contains monuments of considerable historical interest spanning from the 17th to 19th centuries. A 1708 wall tomb at the south end commemorates Reverend John Allen and his son, though the inscription is faded. A red sandstone pedimented and finialled memorial with Latin inscription and memento mori plaque stands nearby. An unusually-designed 1728 monument to the three McFarland sisters features a curvilinear form with raised, simple figures shown with hands on hips. A later 18th-century classical ashlar aedicular monument displays a swan-neck pediment and triangulated buttress with inscribed detail and skeletal column bases, though its inscription is faded. A Greek-revival tomb belonged to John Wilson of Dundyvan, who died in 1851. A monument to Henry Bell, the engineer and shipbuilder, bears a sculpted figure on a tall plinth and was erected by Robert Napier; its inscription is faded. A portion of the wall of Rhu's second church, built in 1763, is preserved as a monument to James Buchanan of Craigend Castle, who died in 1860. A late 19th-century Venetian Gothic memorial commemorates Matthew Andrew Muir and his wife Agnes Bunton of Ardenvohr, who died in 1886. A classical white ashlar monument with sculpted angels' heads marks Helen Newton Whitelaw (died 1912), wife of Sir James Guthrie (died 1930). Numerous other monuments date from the 17th to 19th centuries, many bearing symbolic memento mori imagery including skeletons and angels; one particularly notable example commemorates a blacksmith and features the symbols of his trade—hammer, bellows, and anvil.

The western boundary wall is constructed of stugged sandstone with semicircular coping, featuring octagonal cast-iron gate piers with arrowhead railings. The eastern boundary wall is built of rubble with semicircular coping and slender cast-iron gate piers with simple curved railings.

A sundial stands immediately southeast of the church, dated 1637. It comprises an ashlar bulbous base supporting a square head, furnished with copper gnomons and incised numbers and dates.