Buittle Parish Church And Churchyard

Buittle Parish Church, designed by architect Walter Newall and built by contractor John Graham of Castle Douglas in 1819, is a buttressed Gothic hall church featuring a tower at the north gable. In 1902, a gabled extension was added to the south to create a chancel and vestry, designed by architect James Barbour. The church is constructed with harled granite walling and red sandstone dressings, with buttresses that are stepped at angles. All openings are pointed arches with simple chamfered margins and hoodmoulds. The main elevation faces north and includes a projecting three-stage tower, which has a four-centred arched door with moulded reveals. The second stage of the tower features cusped Y-tracery lancets on each face, while the third stage has single louvred openings. The tower is topped with a crenellated parapet and angle pinnacles.

The church has a three-bay buttressed nave, with windows that include timber tracery made from American redwood and leaded diamond panes. A red sandstone string course runs along the cills and eaves. The asymmetrical gabled extension to the south has large triple lancet windows, and the roofs are covered with slate.

Inside, the porch at the base of the tower leads into an aisleless nave. The seating plan dates from 1902, and there is a raised dais at the chancel with an octagonal pulpit. A three-light stained glass window in the chancel, created by Douglas Strachan, serves as a war memorial from 1920. The nave features an elaborate coffered ceiling with well-crafted plaster cornices, while the chancel has a ribbed ceiling.

The churchyard is enclosed by rubble walls topped with sandstone coping and includes a pair of coped rubble gatepiers with a cast-iron gate. The churchyard contains many 17th-century gravestones, and there are monuments within the walls of the ruined Old Church nearby.