Riccarton Parish Church, Kilmarnock

Riccarton Parish Church, Kilmarnock

Riccarton Parish Church is a classical square-plan church designed by John Richmond in 1823, with substantial additions and alterations carried out in 1911. The church is constructed in red stugged sandstone with polished dressings and sits elevated on a railed stone terrace, accessed via ashlar steps.

The principal west elevation features a 3-bay front with a wider, projecting central bay supported by angle pilasters. The central entrance is marked by an entablature and baroque curved pediment carried on paired engaged Roman Doric columns. Above the door sits a Venetian window in the central bay with single lights flanking it in the outer bays. The date "1823" appears prominently within a similarly detailed baroque main pediment. The recessed bays contain pedimented single light windows treated as doors at ground level. A 4-stage tower and spire rise from the west elevation. The tower displays cornices at each stage, with angle pilasters above the first stage. The second stage contains round-arched windows glazed to the west elevation and blind to the other three sides. The third stage carries a black clock with gold hands and Roman numerals on each face. The fourth stage is hexagonal with small round-arched louvred openings. The spire is hexagonal in plan with rollmoulding at each angle and a weathervane.

The north and south elevations each display 4 bays with blind Y-tracery windows to the ground floor and intersecting tracery windows to the gallery level. Giant order angle pilasters support the moulded eaves course and cornice. Squared angle caps finish the south elevation. The north elevation includes the right return of a north extension to the left.

The east elevation is substantially altered by later additions. A smaller extension occupies the ground floor to the left, featuring a single window and door with paired windows to its left return. Above, the original building shows recesses with a blind former window to the first floor left. A double-height extension to the right obscures the original elevation; it contains a tripartite central window with left and right returns, the latter not fully visible.

Y-tracery windows to the ground floor and intersecting tracery to gallery windows contain squared and diamond quarries with some coloured glass; some are now blind. The main body and later rear extension are covered with piended grey slate roofing with lead ridging, flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods with squared hoppers serve the main structure, with later goods on the rear extension.

The church interior was not inspected during survey as it was undergoing refurbishment in 2001.

The boundary treatment comprises coursed ashlar walls with coursers and segmental copes terminating in squared ashlar piers with small squared caps. Low walls lead to pairs of high square gatepiers to the south and east walls, finished with moulded projecting neck copes and squared cushion caps. Later painted wrought-iron plain railings have been added to the walls. Two-leaf wrought-iron gates with arched panels and scrolled detail centre each entrance. Plain wrought-iron railings flank the ashlar steps leading to the church mount, with paired red sandstone panelled gatepiers at the stair head and further piers to the enclosure angles. A low ashlar wall with plain wrought-iron railings completes the boundary.

The kirkyard dates from the late 17th century and was renovated in the late 19th century. It is enclosed by a random rubble wall with flat copes and plain railings surrounding a raised burial mound. High stone gatepiers to the south elevation support locked wrought-iron gates. The kirkyard contains many carved gravestones, including later stones with emblematic representations for ploughmen and weavers, as well as Gothic family tombs.