St Andrew's Parish Church And Churchyard, Hanover Street, Stranraer

St Andrew's Parish Church is a late 19th-century Gothic church constructed between 1896 and 1898 by John B Wilson, situated on Hanover Street in Stranraer, with associated buildings and a churchyard to the rear. The church is built of whinstone with Prudham sandstone dressings, standing two storeys high with a gabled form. A semi-octagonal vestry is positioned to the southwest, and a hall extends to the rear.

The north elevation features a projecting central gable with steps leading to an embrasured doorpiece containing double timber and glass doors. Flanking this are two-light tracery windows, and above, a larger five-light tracery window is flanked by decorative ashlar panels. The gablehead is surmounted by a cross finial. To the right stands a three-stage tower; its elliptical arched entrance is similarly framed with double doors and flanked by single lights inscribed with ‘?1896?’. The upper stages feature cusped single and paired lights, surmounted by a red-tiled spire rising from a parapet. A recessed porch on the left-hand side includes a three-light opening.

The south elevation incorporates a two-light mullioned opening to the vestry, a flat-roofed harled extension, and a hall section with pairs and single windows featuring cusped tracery and a fleche rising from the roof. The east elevation presents a gabled entrance porch with a timber door and includes paired and single windows at ground level, with further windows illuminating a gallery. The west elevation is dominated by the tower matching that on the north side. A short link connects the hall and vestry, incorporating an elliptical arched doorpiece, a pediment with a plaque, and a semi-octagonal vestry with single-light openings on all faces.

The exterior detailing includes string courses, moulded cornices, sandstone quoins, long and short surrounds, and decorative tracery. The roofs are grey slate, with stone skews, red ridge tiles, and cast iron rainwater goods.

Inside, the church comprises a nave with flanking aisles separated by elliptical-arched stone arcades supported by columns. The roof is timber-coved and boarded, with queenpost trusses. A decorative timber pulpit, created by Stephen Adam and Son in 1898, sits below a large south window. A stained glass window by Joseph Miller, also from 1898, is located to the north. The organ, originally by J J Bins (1928-9) and later rebuilt by David Daniel (1967), is a notable feature. A gallery spanning the north narthex and aisles breaks forward into the nave. The rear hall features corbelled wall posts and decorative timber bracing.

The churchyard contains various gravestones. The church is enclosed by a low coped whinstone wall with decorative railings to the north, with gatepiers featuring sloping caps, decorative gates, and a rubble wall to the south.