Birnie Kirk is a Grade A listed building in the Moray local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 26 January 1971. Church.
Birnie Kirk
- WRENN ID
- brooding-fireplace-finch
- Grade
- A
- Local Planning Authority
- Moray
- Constituency
- Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP: Graham Leadbitter (SNP)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 26 January 1971
- Type
- Church
- OS grid reference
- NJ 206 587
- Coordinates
- 57.61143, -3.32968
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Birnie Kirk is likely a 12th-century church that has undergone various repairs and alterations over the years. Notable changes include the rebuilding of the west gable and the shortening of the nave in 1734, as well as a major restoration in 1891 by architect A Marshall MacKenzie. In around 1975, architect John Wright from Elgin made alterations to the windows on the south elevation.
The church features a simple rectangular nave with a rectangular chancel at the east gable, constructed from tooled squared rubble with ashlar dressings. The south elevation has an off-centre round-headed entrance, which is illuminated by three later round-headed windows. There is a narrow south entrance to the chancel with chamfered margins, featuring a re-set cusped medieval light. The chancel is lit by a single round-headed lancet on both the north and south walls, and there is a mural sundial present. A blocked pointed-headed entrance is located on the north elevation, which has no windows except for the chancel lancets. At the west apex, there is a birdcage bellcote dated 1734, topped with a slate roof.
Inside, the church has a simple design with tooled ashlar walls and a timber ceiling added in 1891. The plain Romanesque chancel arch is supported by engaged columns with cushion capitals. The north and south chancel walls feature deeply splayed round-headed lancets. Various mural memorials can be found, including the Sanders memorial dated 1670, which is a pedimented country Jacobean plaque flanked by small engaged columns that support 'winged souls' as caryatids. The font, likely from the 12th century, is a simple hewn stone basin supported by a thick circular stem with spiral fluting on a square base, with the stem and base dated to 1884-5.
The burial ground surrounding the church is roughly square and enclosed by a coped rubble wall, containing various tombstones from the 17th, 18th, and later periods. The entrance features a pair of plain square tooled ashlar gatepiers with a pair of cast iron spearhead carriage gates.
Local climate
Birnie Kirk sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 69% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 22 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 77% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°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.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings