High Church, High Street, Musselburgh

High Church, located on High Street in Musselburgh, was built in 1843 and recast in 1889 by R Thornton Shiells. The church features a new symmetrical early English front with a central tower and a cross ridged roof that conceals a large single span lower pitch roof over the earlier structure. It has an almost square plan with steeper pitched cross gables added by Shiells, which spring from the rear of the main roof, creating transept motifs. The roof is covered in slate with ornamental ridge tiles, while the front and immediate returns are made of ashlar, and the remainder is constructed from coursed rubble.

The tower consists of four stages, topped with corbelled angle diagonal pinnacles and a smaller corbelled parapet, with square pinnacles in between. Each side of the top stage features two louvred lancet belfry openings with a clock face between them, and there is one narrow lancet on the third stage above a small corbel table. A rose window is located at the second stage, and at ground level, there is an arcade of five narrow lancets flanked by stepped buttresses that rise above the second stage.

The narrow recessed flanking bays contain semi-circular headed doors with a double order of shafts and two-light windows with reticulated tracery above. The end bays are advanced and feature finialled gabled fronts flanked by stepped, pinnacled angle buttresses. At ground level, there is a two-light window with reticulated tracery, a string course, and stepped triple cusped lancets at the gallery level, along with a corbel table and gable above. The return elevation is similar, except it has a two-light window with reticulated tracery at the gallery level. The southeast end of the church features a central four-light window with reticulated tracery, flanked by blind lancets.