New Restalrig Church (Church Of Scotland), Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh

The New Restalrig Church, located on Willowbrae Road in Edinburgh, is a cruciform church built in a Scots Gothic style. The original structure dates from 1891 to 1892, designed by Arthur George Sydney Mitchell and George Wilson. A hall was added in 1914 by George Niven, with a further extension in 1977. The church's footprint includes lean-to aisles that sweep around to an entrance porch, transepts to the north and south, and a four-stage spired tower to the northeast, with a basement containing a church hall to the north. The exterior is constructed of snecked Corsehill stone with polished ashlar dressings, and features a base course to the south and west, with a cill course to the aisle windows. Hoodmoulds adorn the pointed-arch openings.

The west elevation is dominated by a cross-finialled projecting gabled porch in the centre of a lean-to narthex. This porch contains a two-leaf timber-boarded door with decorative iron hinges set within a pointed-arched doorpiece. Small trefoil-headed windows are located in the flanking bays, with crocketted finials to the buttresses. The outer bays of the lean-to narthex sweep towards the aisles, which are lit by three trefoil-headed windows. Above this is a six-light window with geometric tracery and a cross-finialled gable.

The tower features a recessed design at the second and third stages and an off-centre boarded door at ground level. The tower’s fifth stage is characterized by tall, louvred bipartite lancet windows, below a cill course. It corbels to a balustrade with projecting spouts, incorporates angle quoining from the third stage upwards and to the windows, and is topped with a facetted, lucarned spire bearing a weathervane.

The north elevation, showcasing the tower to the left, is divided by buttresses. Basement windows are set within segmental-arched recesses comprising four pointed-arched lights each. A five-light Y-traceried window is set within the north transept, while shouldered lancets define the four-bay lean-to aisle. Clerestory windows with Y-tracery provide light to the nave. A slightly advanced gabled porch features a two-leaf boarded door with decorative cast-iron hinges, set within a round-arched, hoodmoulded opening flanked by buttresses.

The south elevation mirrors the north, with shouldered lancets to the four-bay lean-to aisle, clerestory windows with Y-tracery lighting the nave, and a five-light Y-traceried window in the south transept.

The roof is covered with graded grey slates and terracotta ridge tiles, with red tiles on the spire. All windows have leaded lights. Cast-iron downpipes incorporate decorative hoppers.

Inside, the church features a braced collar-rafter ceiling, full-height paired pointed-arches leading to the transepts, and pointed arches defining the four bays of the aisles. A modern dais at the east end accommodates a pulpit, lectern, and communion table.

The single-storey church hall has a facetted, piend-ended roof accentuated by a slim, louvred, spired ventilator on the ridge. A modern extension exists to the northwest.