Presbytery, Our Lady And St Bean's Rc Chapel, Cannich

The building comprises Our Lady and St Bean’s Roman Catholic Chapel, its presbytery, and a former school, all located in Cannich. The chapel and presbytery were designed by Joseph Hansom and dated 1866. The complex combines church and presbytery in an L-shaped layout, constructed primarily from grey rubble with contrasting, tooled red ashlar dressings.

The rectangular church is oriented northwest/southeast. It features a bowed chancel to the southeast, illuminated by paired lancet windows; the northwest gable is similarly lit with paired lancets at ground and gallery levels. An octagonal tower is situated at the north side with a porch in the re-entrant angle. The church’s flanks have four bays, each lit with lancet windows, with one large, Y-tracery window breaking the wallhead. The upper storey of the tower has louvred openings, and the spire includes lucarnes topped by an apex cast-iron cross. The interior is simple, with a ribbed ceiling, and a gallery at the west end, which has a cusped, panelled front. The altar, added in 1938 by Reginald Fairlie, features a panelled, wooden, canopied reredos.

The presbytery is an asymmetrical, three-storey house. A wide, projecting gabled wing faces south, with a two-storey porch in the re-entrant angle, featuring a pointed-headed entrance. Bipartite windows are present in the gable’s ground and first floors, each with a shoulder lintel capped by diminutive, paired lattice-pane lights. Fenestration is varied, employing pointed heads or shoulder lintels, with predominantly two-pane glazing. Coped ridge and wallhead stacks are present, along with slate roofs.

The cruciform former school range stands close to the chapel. The building is constructed of grey rubble, with large windows illuminating a single schoolroom. One arm of the range is a single-storey, two-bay schoolhouse. The schoolhouse has multi-pane glazing, decorative bargeboards, a coped ridge stack, and slate roofs. A later timber lean-to extension has been added to the rear.

The buildings are in continuous ecclesiastical use. The complex is referenced in Peter F Anson’s “Catholic Church Building in Scotland from the Reformation until the Outbreak of the First World War 1560-1914” and is documented by the National Monuments Record of Scotland.