Borthwick Church

Borthwick Church is a Victorian Gothic Revival kirk designed by Thomas Brown of the architectural firm Brown & Wardrop, built between 1862 and 1864. It incorporates substantial medieval elements: the 12th-century apse, the 15th-century South Transept, and the 15th-century Arniston Vault (sacristy). The building follows a cruciform plan with a prominent entrance tower topped by a broach spire.

The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. A base course runs around the building, above which are traceried pointed arched openings with hoodmoulds and carved label-stops. A moulded eaves course with gableted skewputts and angle buttresses completes the composition.

The entrance tower is divided into three stages. The first stage features a pointed-arch doorway with nook-shafts on the north elevation, fitted with a two-leaf boarded door with decorative wrought iron hinges. Above this is a small pointed arched window, with a pointed-arched window to the east elevation and a flat arched window to the west elevation (with a smaller flat arched window above). A right buttress contains the stair to the second stage. The second stage is blank. The third stage has pointed-arched traceried louvred openings on each face, above which is a cornice decorated with carved eagle grotesques. A wrought iron finial crowns the spire.

The nave's west elevation contains three pointed arched windows at ground level with a rose window above and a louvred trefoil opening set within the gablehead. The south elevation extends five bays, with the south transept advanced in the penultimate bay to the outer right. Windows occupy the remaining buttressed bays, and a small lean-to stove room is situated to the outer right. The north elevation features the tower to the outer right, the north transept and Arniston Aisle to the outer left, and a lower buttressed two-bay aisle between the tower and north transept.

The north transept, added in 1864, has angle buttresses and a four-light traceried window with a louvred vesica set in the gablehead. Heraldic shields bearing the lion rampant for Dundas appear to the left and for Kidd to the right, with a stone finial at the apex.

The Arniston Aisle, also dating to 1864, is recessed from the north transept. Its north elevation features a chamfered angle to the outer left, a two-light traceried window, and an arched louvred opening set in the gablehead with a stone finial above. A roll-moulded doorway opens across the re-entrant angle with the north transept. The east elevation contains two quatrefoil windows.

The Arniston Vault is a 15th-century structure recessed from the Arniston Aisle. It features a roll-moulded basket arch doorway with a boarded timber door, a quatrefoil window above, and a heraldic shield bearing the lion rampant set in the gablehead. The roof is a concrete slab.

The 15th-century south transept is a gabled structure with two buttressed bays and an overlapping stone slab roof. The cavetto cornice is decorated with carved grotesques and floral motifs. The south elevation contains a three-light traceried window with a raised heraldic device in the gablehead. A sundial dated 1705 is set across the angle to the outer left (the gnomon is missing). The west elevation has a roll-moulded basket arch doorway in the bay to the left with a boarded timber door, and a window in the bay to the right. The east elevation contains a wall monument in the bay to the left.

The 12th-century apse has been largely rebuilt and features two roll-moulded round arched windows with an eaves cornice and conical roof.

The interior is entered through a porch in the tower and a lobby. An open timber wagon roof spans the space above pitched pine pews and heritors boxes. Decorative barley sugar balusters ornament the steps to the pulpit, and a pierced timber communion table is provided. A pointed arched arcade opens to the north transept, with a painted organ located in the left arch. The north transept has a shouldered arched arcaded east wall to the Arniston Aisle with a door to the left. A pierced timber screen and round arch with scalloped capitals lead to the apse. The south transept has a pointed tunnel roof, a 19th-century wall-tomb with a gothic carved surround on the west wall, a segmental arched tomb on the south wall below the window, and an aumbry and piscina on the east wall with a door to the right.

Three churches have stood within the walls of Borthwick Churchyard. The first church, built before 1153, was known as "Lochfeureur" and dedicated to St. Kentigern (also known as St. Mungo). David I granted it to the Priory of Scone in the diocese of St. Andrews, remaining under that authority until 1283 when it became an independent rectory. Around the 1430s, probably at the time Borthwick Castle was being constructed, the Borthwick family commissioned the South Aisle. The carved stone flora adorning the eaves cornice is thought to have been inspired by foliage found locally and also seen at Rosslyn and Crichton. The grotesques interspersed among the flora represent joy, grief, mockery, surprise, cunning, singing, resignation, merriment, and death. Effigies of a knight and his lady—suggested to be William, 1st Lord Borthwick (died 1470), and his wife—were originally in a wall tomb in this aisle and are now in the nave. In 1449 the church was annexed by Sir William Crichton to the prebend of the new collegiate church at Crichton, only regaining independence in 1596 through a petition by the authority of James VI, when it became known as Borthwick Church.

The first church burned down in 1775, leaving little more than the medieval apse. The second church was built in the north west corner of the churchyard near the present gate. Described in the Statistical Account as "neat, commodious and substantial," a sketch in the Heritors Minutes shows it was simple in form with a piended roof and an ogee-roofed tower. This building's life was short; by 1860 the growing congregation necessitated a new building. David Kidd, inventor of the gummed envelope and proprietor of Inveresk Paper Mills, offered £3,400 towards the construction of a church in memory of his parents, which explains why the Kidd crest appears on the north wall. To keep costs within this sum, the 15th-century south aisle was converted into the vestry, and the remains of the original church—essentially the medieval apse—were incorporated into the new building. The resulting structure is unmistakably Victorian yet retains hints of its medieval roots. Since 1981 various parts of the church have undergone restoration.