Old Parish Church, Crombie Street, Oban

This is a Romanesque church built in 1893, designed by Alexander Shairp, situated on Crombie Street, Oban. The building is rectangular in plan and features a projecting tower with a spire at the north end, along with entrance porches on either side. Circular windows are set into the north gable. The exterior is constructed of bull-faced, squared, and snecked grey granite, with a yellow ashlar spire, dressings, and decorative details.

The tower is three-stage, topped with an octagonal ashlar spire dentilled at its base and featuring a weathervane. The lower stage has slit windows and a datestone, with a string course below a two-light round-arched lancet window contained in a round-arched panel. Flanking porches have round-arched doorways with timber, two-leaf doors fitted with ornate iron hinges. Corner shafts support pyramidal pinnacles that are dentilled at their base. The middle stage displays single round-arched lancet windows on the north, west, and east faces. The upper stage sits on a battered, saw-tooth coped course, with two-light louvered windows on each face, and circular decoration above. A stone staircase leads to the gallery within the tower.

The nave is a six-bay hall with round-arched lancet windows delineated by saw-tooth coped buttresses. A three-light round-arched lancet window is located in the south gable wall, alongside a three-flue stack at the apex. Shafts with pyramidal pinnacles (dentilled at the base) are positioned at the north corners. A double gable with an M-roof is located behind the session room and offices to the south gable.

The interior is galleried, with pitch pine pews and umbrella stands. A panelled gallery spans the north end of the hall, supported by cast-iron columns adorned with shell motif capitals. Vertical timber wainscoting is present throughout. The organ is by Ingram & Co. of Edinburgh. The octagonal pulpit is located centrally in the south wall and is accompanied by matching pitch pine doors leading to the session room and office. A marble font, dating to approximately 1908, is also present. The ceiling is coved along the east and west walls, supported by curved timber struts resting on decorative stone corbels, and features iron ventilation grilles. A stained glass window depicting the life of Christ is positioned in the centre of the west wall. The south wall’s round-headed arch houses three stained glass windows with a floral corbel hood mould. Leaded lights with coloured glass are found in the nave and tower windows; sash and case windows with leaded glazing are present in the office and session room.

The church is roofed with grey slates, with terracotta ridges and skew copes to the hall and offices. Ventilator plinths are positioned along the main roof ridge. The graveyard is enclosed by rubble walls with a concrete cope, lowered on the west side with modern railing. Wrought iron gates are set within plain, capped piers of black granite. The graveyard contains various headstones, including two pink granite Celtic crosses dating to the late 19th century, a low cast-iron grave marker with vine leaf decoration from 1861, and a pink granite obelisk erected in 1909.