Inch Parish Church With Monument To John Alexander, Castle Kennedy

Inch Parish Church was built in 1858-61 by J Maitland Wardrop, and is situated near Castle Kennedy. It is a near-rectangular Gothic parish church with a lower height section to the southwest. The church is constructed of whinstone with ashlar dressings, and features lancet-headed window openings.

The southeast elevation, which serves as the main entrance, has steps leading to an advanced gabled entrance porch on the right. The porch has a pair of timber doors with a hoodmould and label stops, with single windows flanking it. A tripartite window is present in a forward-projecting gabled bay, with a three-light moulded roundel in the gable above. Two single windows are set into the nave, with a re-entrant angle porch to the left featuring another pair of timber doors and a single window to the far left. The northeast side elevation displays angled buttresses to the nave gable, with steps leading to a trefoil-arched war memorial, similarly hooded with label stops. Above the memorial sits a tripartite window, and a recessed roundel is set into the gable, alongside a gabletted bellcote, originally intended to be a steeple. The southwest side elevation features two single windows at ground level, a tripartite window above, and a recessed three-light moulded roundel in the gable, topped by a finial. The northwest rear elevation has buttresses dividing seven nave windows, and incorporates a lean-to entrance and single window to the lower height section, with a stone roof and a timber door in the re-entrant angle of the porch.

The church has leaded and stained glass windows, and a grey slate roof with stone skews. A wallhead stack is located on the northwest elevation, along with polygonal cans. Decorative cast-iron rainwater goods with ornate hoppers are also present.

The interior, redesigned by Hamilton More-Nisbett in 1895-6 following a fire, includes a timber floor, pews, and altar furnishings. The organ, originally by Brindley & Foster (1897), was rebuilt by H Hilsdon in 1970. The east window was created around 1900 by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. The graveyard contains predominantly 20th-century headstones.

A monument to John Alexander stands in the graveyard, consisting of a square stone plinth surmounted by a cylindrical shaft and urn, commemorating his death in 1905. The entrance is marked by square gatepiers with pyramidal caps, iron gates, and stepped coped boundary walls enclosing the site.

The church, which maintains its ecclesiastical use and provides 400 sittings, is noted for its Gothic timberwork in the Stair family chapel and the altar. J.M. Wardrop, in partnership with Thomas Brown from 1849, also designed Lochinch Castle (listed separately). John Alexander, known as Blind Johnnie, was a popular street musician in Stranraer and died in 1905 at the age of 70.