Carrington Parish Church

Carrington Parish Church

Built in 1710, this is a single-storey, three-bay church with a traditional T-plan and a square-plan tower, constructed from random pink sandstone rubble with droved and polished dressings. The building features a base course and moulded eaves cornice, chamfered reveals, and long and short quoins. Boarded timber doors provide access to the building.

The church is distinctive for its Presbyterian arrangement, with the tower positioned in the long elevation rather than at the west end—a characteristic feature of reformed church design. The pointed-arched, diamond-glazed windows with Y-tracery were inserted by Thomas Brown in 1838, replacing the original fenestration. Two sundials are symmetrically placed on the left and right angles of the south elevation.

The south elevation is symmetrical and serves as the main entrance. A three-stage entrance tower with spire projects forward to the centre. The ground floor contains a doorway (formerly leading to the pulpit) with a tooled lintel reading "1710", surmounted by an eight-pane fanlight and an ogee-arched louvred opening above. A small single-pane window appears on the left return. The third stage of the tower is a former dovecot with round-arched louvred openings to the centre of each elevation and flightholes under the eaves. An ironwork weathervane and cockerel crown the apex of the spire. Windows flank the tower to left and right, with two-leaf doorways at the outer left and right corners.

The east elevation is symmetrical, with a window to the centre and remains of a former window above. The north elevation is near-symmetrical with three bays; a gabled bay projects to the centre with a large pane, pointed-arched window, and an infilled window below. Windows appear to the left and right returns; the right return is flanked by a two-leaf door with an eight-pane fanlight. A blank flanking bay appears to the right, whilst the left bay contains an infilled window to the right of the ground floor and an infilled window with carved pediment to the left of the first floor. The west elevation is symmetrical with a window to the centre surmounted by a large pane window.

The windows throughout are predominantly pointed-arched with diamond panes. The roof is graded grey slate with grey slate ridge and stone skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Historically, the church (originally harled) superseded an earlier structure sited near the present location. The property belonged to the Abbey of Scone from the 12th century until 1374, when it was exchanged for the Church of Blair. William Knox, nephew of John Knox, served as minister between 1567 and 1592. The exterior survives in good condition; the principal alteration was the insertion of windows by Thomas Brown in 1838. Evidence of both low and high windows suggests that galleries originally existed within the church, likely retained by Brown and Wardrop when they refurbished the interior in 1858. The church closed for worship in 1975 and has since been converted to office use.

The interior was significantly altered by Crighton Lang, Willis and Galloway in the 1980s, with a mezzanine inserted. However, the timber roof with kingpost trusses survives.

The gates, gatepiers, and boundary walls form part of the listed building. Two-leaf timber gates are flanked by coursed yellow sandstone octagonal gatepiers with pyramidal caps. A sandstone rubble boundary wall with flat and rubble coping incorporates the Session House (listed separately). Thomas Brown also carried out work on Carrington Manse, now known as Carrington Hill (listed separately).