Cathedral Church Of St Andrew, Ardross Street, Inverness

Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Ardross Street, Inverness

This cathedral was designed by Alexander Ross and built between 1866 and 1869. It is constructed in English Middle Pointed style with French influences, using snecked pink Conon freestone rubble with cream Covesea stone dressings and roofed with Westmoreland green slates.

The building comprises a narthex flanked by square-plan towers, a nave and aisles, slightly projecting transepts, a choir, and a demi-hexagonal apse-ended chancel. An octagonal chapter-house stands at the liturgical north-east. The liturgical west front features a nave gable flanked by towers, with a main entrance recessed in an arch carried by three orders of shafts rising from a panelled dado and crowned by a pierced traceried gablet. The tympanum contains a high-relief sculptured group in Portland stone, flanked by piers with crocketted pinnacles. The gable is flanked by a three-stage tower with angle buttresses; spires have not yet been built. The sculpture of the west front was created by Earp of London in 1876 and includes a tympanum and statues of St Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John the Baptist. The flanks feature low buttressed aisles and a clerestory, with the octagonal chapter-house at the liturgical north-east having octagonal buttresses.

Interior

The narthex is divided from the nave by a glazed stone screen, with a baptistry under the liturgical south-west tower. The four-bay nave arcade is carried on monolith columns of Peterhead red granite with foliated freestone capitals; the arches have hoodmoulds springing from sculptured corbels. The aisles contain two-light windows, and the clerestory has three-light windows. The transepts reach the full height of the nave, with arches at the crossing rising the full height of the roof carried on clustered columns; five-light traceried windows fill the transept gables. The choir is aisled, and the apsidal chancel has three two-light traceried windows at the liturgical east end. Roof principals rise from corbels, with a panelled wagon roof of varnished red pine featuring stencilled patterns intended for colour decoration. The sculptured corbels were created by Andrew Davidson and Alexander Ross in 1876.

The pulpit was designed by Alexander Ross and executed by D & A Davidson of Inverness in 1869. It is constructed of Caen stone, with a trefoil plan, and rests on columns of Abriachan granite. The sides are carved with bas-relief panels and angels separated by columns of green marble, topped with a green marble cope.

The altar dates to 1869 and features a front with trefoil-headed arches containing serpentine marble shafts and panels of alabaster decorated with Christian symbols in alabaster and crystal.

The reredos was created by Earp in 1869 from Caen stone, comprising three arches borne on Purbeck marble columns and enclosing panels carved in high relief. The centre is surmounted by a carved and crocketted gablet, flanked by buttresses topped with figures of angels.

A brass lectern dates to 1879. The bishop's throne, a carved oak cathedra, was made by Andrew Fraser of Inverness in 1869. The choir stalls were designed by C Hodgson Fowler of Durham and Alexander Ross in 1909 as open carved screens of Austrian wainscott oak. A war memorial screen of carved oak was created by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1923.

The font, made in 1871 by James F Redfern, is closely based on the font in the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen, by Thorwaldsen, and is carved in marble with a kneeling angel bearing a shell. Altar rails by Hart, Son, Peard & Co of London date to 1869 and are made of brass. A mural monument to Bishop William Hay (died 1707) comprises an 18th-century marble tablet with swagged drapery. A bust of Bishop Robert Eden (1804–86) was created by Andrew Davidson in 1900 in white marble. Sedilia date to 1871.

Stained glass windows were created by Hardman & Co: the nave and chancel windows in 1869, the liturgical west window in 1887, the liturgical north transept window in 1877, and the south transept window in 1887. Minton tiles date to 1869. The organ was supplied by Hill & Son of London in 1869. The bells were cast by Warner & Son of London in 1869.