St Aidan's Church, 408 Brook Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

St Aidan's Church, Broughty Ferry

St Aidan's Church is a rectangular-plan Gothic-style church designed by James Black and constructed between 1824 and 1826. The building is constructed of rubble masonry with polished and rendered dressed stonework and a slate roof. A tower and spire are positioned at the western end. The third and fourth stages of the tower, the spire, vestry, and south bay were added in 1858 by architect Charles Edward, with masons John Glenday, John Taylor, and James Archer. An organ chamber was added in 1875 by James MacLaren and George Shaw Aitken.

The north elevation comprises three bays with a central porch featuring a moulded Gothic arch, hoodmould, and two-leaf panelled door with blind arcading and tracery and margined angles, topped by a Celtic cross finial. Flat-roofed flanking wings with paired lights and moulded cornice flank the porch. Large two-light Y-traceried windows are positioned at the main elevation to left and right, with a central gable containing a rose window and Celtic cross finial.

The western elevation features a pitched roof with a four-stage tower advanced from the original gable at the left, with margined angles and string courses. A door at the first stage faces north, with a blocked opening to the west and short pointed lights on the north and west sides. Three lancets occupy the second stage, whilst the set-back third stage has paired louvred lancets. Four clock faces sit at the fourth stage within an open pediment beneath an eaves course. The broached spire features louvred dormers at two stages, a slate roof with a fishscale band, and a weathervane. A gable at the right contains an advanced lean-to single-storey vestry with an apex stack.

The south elevation presents three bays with an advanced central gable housing the organ chamber (1875), decorated with two round-headed windows sharing a continuous cill course and an oculus at the gable. Lancets appear at the flanking bays, with a Y-traceried window on the vestry to the left.

The east elevation consists of two bays beneath a pitched roof, with a door at the left and a single-storey porch at the original gable to the right, which has a piend roof and multi-paned window with a door on the north side and blocked opening on the south side. A short pointed light sits at gallery level, with a small glazed oculus at the gable.

The interior follows a near-square plan with a semi-octagonal gallery occupying the north, east, and west sides, featuring blind trefoil tracery and cast-iron columns. The organ and pulpit are positioned at the south centre, partly recessed in a moulded alcove flanked by two round-headed windows and an oculus. A central war memorial communion table is complemented by a lectern to the left (dated 1924) and a font to the right (dated 1921). Windows are mainly clear with diamond glazing and red margins. Stained glass windows occupy the organ alcove, designed by G F Campfield in 1893—the left window was gifted by John Watson Wemyss, whilst the right commemorates James Soote of Reres House.

The churchyard contains numerous nineteenth-century upright tombstones with dates at the top, and includes the grave of Thomas Dick (1774–1857), the astronomer and philosopher. The burial ground is enclosed by a stone wall on the south and west sides, brick on the east side, and railings on the north side with two pyramidal gatepiers.

The church opened on 7 May 1826 to serve summer visitors and the expanding population of East and West Ferry. It was formally constituted a Chapel of Ease in 1827 and became a church and parish quoad sacra on 15 July 1863. The building remains in ecclesiastical use.