St Mark's Unitarian Church, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 14 December 1970. Church. 3 related planning applications.

St Mark's Unitarian Church, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
secret-solder-wagtail
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh East and Musselburgh MP: Chris Murray (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
14 December 1970
Type
Church
Address
St Mark's Unitarian Church, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2DP
OS grid reference
NT 248 734
Coordinates
55.9485, -3.20552
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

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

Description

St Mark's Unitarian Church, located on Castle Terrace in Edinburgh, was designed by David Bryce and built between 1834 and 1835. This church showcases a Baroque and Mannerist style, featuring a Jacobean parapet.

The northeast elevation facing Castle Terrace is a two-storey and basement structure with a three-bay Baroque design. It is constructed of polished sandstone ashlar, with the ground floor channelled. The bays are separated by channelled pilaster strips at the ground level, with Doric pilasters flanking the entrance. The first floor features Corinthian pilasters, with paired pilasters flanking a larger central window. Access is provided by stone steps leading to a panelled and decoratively carved two-leaf studded timber door set in a round-arched opening. The doorpiece is adorned with Doric columns and an open-topped segmental pediment that encloses a heraldic cartouche. The flanking bays contain blocked windows with moulded surrounds. The first floor has three tall round-headed aproned windows with lattice leaded glazing, each topped with scrolled open-topped segmental pediments that also contain cartouches. A deep bracketed cornice runs along the top, and the roof features a pierced strapwork parapet with an inscribed centre panel, a scrolled open-topped segmental pediment with a cartouche and finials, and urns at the outer corners.

Inside, the church features slim cast-iron Doric columns and decorative consoles that support a horseshoe gallery with original pews. Fluted Corinthian columns hold up an arched, compartmented ceiling. Round-arched two-light windows with lozenge-pattern leaded glass flank a white painted octagonal sounding board topped with a finialled ogee canopy. The organ is located at the rear of the gallery within a carved wooden case.

The entrance is flanked by spear-headed cast-iron railings and decorative cast-iron lamp standards.

Local climate

St Mark's Unitarian Church, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°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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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 3 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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