St Columba's Chapel, Poltalloch Estate is a Grade B listed building in the Argyll and Bute local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 20 July 1971. Chapel.

St Columba's Chapel, Poltalloch Estate

WRENN ID
rooted-timber-juniper
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Argyll and Bute
Constituency
Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber MP: Brendan O'Hara (SNP)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
20 July 1971
Type
Chapel
OS grid reference
NR 816 965
Coordinates
56.11143, -5.51414
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

St Columba's Chapel, located on the Poltalloch Estate, is an Early English Gothic Revival church designed by Thomas Cundy between 1852 and 1854. The building has a gabled rectangular plan, with the chancel set lower to the east. It features an octagonal belfry topped with a pyramidal cap at the west gable apex. To the south side of the chancel is a private memorial chapel, and there is a gabled porch on the north side. The chapel is constructed of rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings, including a base course, a moulded cill course, and a dentiled eaves course. It has shafted lancet windows with hood moulds, stepped buttressing, stepped skew gables, and cross finials. A carved figurative panel is inset into the gable of the north porch.

The interior, which was not seen in 2011, features droved ashlar walls with floral carved stonework details. The timber roof has pointed-arch bracing and corbelled collar trusses, with a panelled ceiling in the chancel. There is an octagonal pulpit and a Purbeck marble font, along with an oak screen that separates the chancel from the chapel. The stained glass windows were created by William Wailes.

Surrounding the chapel are boundary walls made of coped rubble, complemented by ornamental cast-iron railings and gatepiers capped with pyramidal tops.

Local climate

St Columba's Chapel, Poltalloch Estate sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,880 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 11 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 89% of listed buildings. Of these, 6 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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