Thurso West Church And Church Rooms, Sinclair Street, Thurso

Thurso West Church and Church Rooms, designed by architect and builder David Smith in 1859, is a Gothic-style church constructed from coursed dressed rubble with tooled ashlar dressings. The building is oriented southeast to northwest, with the main entrance facing Sinclair Street and rear access from Princes Street.

The church has a rectangular shape with a prominent tower at the center of the southeast gabled front. This tower features a pointed-headed recessed porch at its base, clasped buttresses that terminate in truncated pinnacles, and an octagonal belfry topped with a lucarned spire. The spire has cusped Y-tracery windows on the first and second stages, with louvred openings at the second stage, while small pointed-headed louvred vents are present on each face of the belfry. Flanking the entrance are cusped Y-tracery windows, and similar windows light the five-bay side elevations. A large hoodmoulded Perpendicular window is located on the northwest gable, in front of which is a low, single-storey bowed vestry with a Tudor arched entrance on the left and a blind similar entrance on the right. The roof is made of Easdale slate.

Inside, the church features a simple galleried interior with a canted U-shaped gallery supported by plain cast-iron clustered columns and a panelled frontage. The ceiling is coffered, and the wooden pews are grained, while the pulpit has Gothic detailing on its backboard.

Adjacent to the church is a contemporary or near-contemporary gabled Gothic church room located at the northern angle. This church room has a large Perpendicular gabled porch entrance from Robertsons Lane and a polygonal end stack, with a slate roof. The property is enclosed by a low coped retaining wall topped with cast-iron spearhead railings and a matching pair of gates leading to Sinclair Street. The entrance features square tooled rubble gate piers with shallow pyramidal caps, similar end piers, and a dry stone wall along Princes Street.