Burial Ground, St Mary's R.C. Church, Eskadale is a Grade B listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 5 October 1971.
Burial Ground, St Mary's R.C. Church, Eskadale
- WRENN ID
- steep-gutter-elm
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP: Jamie Stone (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 5 October 1971
- OS grid reference
- NH 453 399
- Coordinates
- 57.42321, -4.57619
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
This is a Roman Catholic burial ground and church, built in 1826 and designed in the Norman style, with later alterations and additions by Peter Paul Pugin in 1881. The church is a symmetrical, rectangular building with a gable roof, oriented east to west. It features slightly lower and shorter five-bay aisles to the north and south sides. The exterior is white harled with broad, splayed, tooled ashlar margins and dressings. A round-headed entrance is centrally located on the west gable, with matching entrances on the north and south gable returns. Flanking lancet windows are present on the west entrance, with three round-headed paired-light lattice-pane windows above, the central one being taller. Similar windows are found in the gables and five-bay flanks. A circular window with geometric tracery was added in 1881 to the centre of the east gable, accompanied by a small oculus above. A cross finial sits atop the east gable apex, with square, stumpy finials elsewhere; the roof is slate.
Inside, the church has a spacious interior with aisles divided from the nave by a Neo-Norman arcade. A small gallery is located at the west end, featuring a simple cast-iron balustrade. An ornate Gothic reredos, dating from 1881, is flanked by niches containing statues. A Gothic canopied tomb chest is set into the north wall of the chancel, also from 1881. The church contains late 19th century pews with "poppy head" ends and various mural memorials.
The associated burial ground is simply walled, containing 19th and 20th century tombs. A Lovat burial enclosure is located to the west of the church. The church remains in ecclesiastical use. A local account from 1841 described the building as “a neat Roman Catholic chapel erected a few years ago by Lord Lovat at considerable expense." Embellishments such as the reredos and tomb, executed in 1881 as a memorial to Thomas, Lord Lovate (died 1875), were designed by Peter Paul Pugin. Carving for the reredos and tomb was carried out by Boulton of Cheltenham.
Local climate
Burial Ground, St Mary's R.C. Church, Eskadale sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,220 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 92% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 78% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 67 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 49 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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