Our Lady And St Bean's Rc Chapel, Cannich

Our Lady And St Bean's Roman Catholic Chapel, along with its presbytery and former school, was designed by Joseph Hansom and built in 1866. The complex comprises an L-plan range combining the church and presbytery, constructed from grey rubble with contrasting tooled red ashlar dressings.

The rectangular church is oriented northwest to southeast. It features a bowed chancel to the southeast, lit by paired lancet windows, and a northwest gable also lit by paired lancets in both the ground and gallery levels. An octagonal tower stands to the north, with a porch set into the re-entrant angle. The four bays on either flank are lit by similar lancet windows, though with a single large Y-tracery window breaking the wallhead. The upper storey of the tower contains louvred openings, topped with a spire featuring lucarnes and an apex cast-iron cross. The interior is simple, with a ribbed ceiling and a gallery at the west end having a cusped, panelled front. The altar, designed by Reginald Fairlie in 1938, includes a panelled, canopied reredos.

The presbytery is an asymmetrical three-storey house. A wide, projecting gabled wing faces south, with a two-storey porch set into the re-entrant angle, incorporating a pointed-headed entrance. Bipartite windows are found in the ground and first floors of the gable, each featuring shoulder lintels topped by diminutive paired lattice-pane lights. Fenestration is varied, with both pointed-headed and shoulder lintel detailing, and primarily features two-pane glazing.

Coped ridge and wallhead stacks rise above slate roofs.

The former school and schoolhouse are arranged in a cruciform range near the church. Constructed from grey rubble, the school features large windows illuminating a single schoolroom. One section of one arm consists of a simple single-storey-and-attic, two-bay schoolhouse. Multi-pane glazing, decorative bargeboards, a coped ridge stack, and slate roofs are present. A later timber lean-to extension runs along the rear.

The ecclesiastical building remains in use as such.

Additional information is recorded in "Catholic Church Building in Scotland from the Reformation until the Outbreak of the First World War 1560-1914" by Peter F Anson in The Innes Review v (1954), p. 133, and in the National Monuments Record of Scotland.