Carmunnock Parish Church, Kirk Road, Glasgow

Carmunnock Parish Church, located on Kirk Road in Glasgow, was rebuilt between 1762 and 1767, with repairs made from 1838 to 1840. This T-plan parish church is oriented east-west, suggesting it may have been built on a pre-Reformation site and possibly incorporates some original materials. The body of the church is constructed from rubble, with areas that are coursed and squared, particularly at the north end of the west gable. The stone blocks are mostly diagonally droved, and there are ashlar dressings. The church features square and round-headed openings, although the arched window-heads are not original. There is a straight forestair on each gable, and a stone-built porch at the top of each stair. A handsome 18th-century bellcote is located over a projecting breast on the east gable, and the skews have moulded skewputts.

The main north wall has a shallow outset in the center, with a gabled low vestry added around 1819. The aisle, associated with the Stuart of Castlemilk family, is centrally located on the south wall and was built in the mid to later 18th century. It features a vault with a loft above, mainly diagonally droved with a horizontally droved west wall, raised margins, and keystoned flat-lintelled doorways. There is a cill band at the loft, moulded skewputts, and skew end moulding that runs horizontally below the apex stack. The main cornice is present, along with a scale-and-platt forestair leading to the loft door in the east re-entrant angle. A central doorway to the vault is located on the south gable. The vault walls are lined with plain marble panels from the late 19th or early 20th century, and there is a jack-arched ceiling with a wrought-iron gate that is presumably contemporary.

Inside, the church is mainly 19th century, featuring a gallery with a panelled front at either end, supported by a pair of cast-iron columns, each with a stone corbel set at the south end, near the window ingoe. The aisle gallery is now used as an organ loft with a room behind it. An octagonal pulpit is centrally located on the north wall in a shallow outset, with four leaded windows behind it, designed by Norman Macleod MacDougall, serving as a World War I memorial.

The churchyard is enclosed primarily by rubble-built walls, with corniced gatepiers from the 1760s at the Kirk Road entrance, which have domed caps. The headstones and table tombs date mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, and it is the burial place of artists Norman Macleod MacDougall and John Lawson.

Adjacent to the gate is a small gabled watch house, which has a door on the north flank and is built of rubble with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. It contains a painted notice of instructions for the watch from 1828. The original bell from 1648 is now lost.