St Modan's Parish Church, Rosneath

St Modan's Parish Church is an 1854 building in Rosneath, with later additions of a south transept in 1862, a north transept in 1873, a chancel extension in 1921, and a vestry on the south side in 1929. The church is built in the English Gothic style and has a gabled design, appearing as an approximate cruciform shape due to the recessed transepts. It is constructed from whinstone with polished honey-coloured sandstone dressings and details, featuring stugged margins. The windows are plate and geometrically traceried, with hoodmoulds and label stops. Low, saw-tooth coped, staggered angle buttresses and a base course add to the exterior detailing, with steeply pitched roofs completing the structure.

The eastern elevation is dominated by a broad, gabled nave centrally positioned, flanked by recessed transepts and porches set within the re-entrant angles. A deep base course supports a tall, three-light geometric traceried window, and a honey-coloured, shouldered gabled sandstone bellcote with a cross finial tops the facade. A window is present on the right return, alongside a gabled porch with a Tudor-arched door (fitted with cast-iron hinges and handle), and a bipartite window to its right. A gabled porch also features on the left return.

The southern elevation, dating to 1862, is symmetrical with a central M-gable transept, featuring a two-light geometric traceried window and a figurative water spout (possibly re-used from an earlier building). A memorial plaque is situated at ground level of the outer right gable. A gabled porch leads to a pointed arch doorway, while a 1929 T-plan vestry block is set to the outer left, forming a re-entrant angle. A canted-end memorial chapel, aligned southwest-northeast, has two-light lancets, and a piend-roofed block projects south, displaying a cruciform arrowslit window, and a chamfered door to the right.

The north elevation, from 1873, presents another M-gable transept with a two-light geometric traceried window on the left and a three-light window on the right; the tracery of the latter was replaced with pierced roundels when the chancel was enlarged in 1921, resulting in the removal of an Oliphant stained glass window. A tall gabled block, housing the organ, is recessed against the chancel to the right, topped with a coped apex stack and a two-light lancet on its right return. The chancel is distinguished by a three-light geometric traceried window.

The interior features exceptional stained glass. The chancel is finished with rubble walls and a dark wood dado, while the transepts are painted, and box-pew style seating is in place. A high, pointed chancel arch leads to the chancel window, which serves as a war memorial featuring work by Stephen Adams of Glasgow, with a carving of the Last Supper by Meredith Williams (donated by Princess Louisa in 1931) located below. The organ, a two-manual tracker organ by Hills, is housed within a carved wooden casing and was gifted by Princess Louisa in 1875. Queen Victoria’s bible, also gifted by Princess Louisa in 1917, rests on the altar table. A stone dedicated to St Modan is positioned at the north side of the chancel arch. A bell in the north transept, taken from the old church, is inscribed 'Ian Burgerhuis me fecit 1610 Soli dei Gloria?'. A window in the north transept was previously the chancel window and was donated by Mrs Oliphant, a 19th-century author. A window dedicated to John Leod Campbell is located in the east gable. Two windows in the south transept are by Dr Douglas Strachan, dating from 1908 and 1915. A former reredos depicting the Ten Commandments, painted on cloth over wood by A Maitland in 1862, is now on the east wall of the south transept.