Paterson Church, School Place, Kirkwall

The Paterson Church, located on School Place in Kirkwall, was built in 1847 as a hall church. It is a two-storey, three-bay gable-ended structure with a slightly projecting central bay and a single-storey two-bay hall attached to the rear. The church is distinguished by a central traceried window flanked by shouldered, square-plan buttresses, each topped with a finialled, pinnacle, square-plan bellcote. A similar arcaded bellcote with a blind oculus sits at the gablehead, set upon a corbelled base. The church is constructed from polished sandstone ashlar with polished ashlar dressings.

The west (principal) elevation features a stone staircase leading to a moulded doorway with a two-leaf timber-panelled door and a fanlight. A four-light window is situated below the gablehead bellcote, with tall windows flanking it. The south (side) elevation, a seven-bay facade, has a window in each bay at ground level, with a timber-panelled two-leaf door and a blocked, dated '1847' fanlight in the opening to the outer left. The first-floor windows are divided with columnar mullions and feature a central circular light. The north (side) elevation is identical to the south, with a timber-panelled door and a rectangular fanlight in the bay to the outer right. The east (rear) elevation consists of a single-storey hall and features a boarded door with a small-pane fanlight in the bay to the right, with a window in the adjacent bay. It also has two evenly disposed three-light windows with a central circular light, and a blind round-arched opening to the gablehead. The windows throughout the church are fitted with leaded and stained glass, while the hall windows are 12-pane timber sash and case. A grey slate roof, stone ridge, stone skews, and cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.

Inside the main church, an encaustic-tiled vestibule leads to twin dog-leg stone staircases ascending to a gallery. The gallery features cast-iron balusters, timber handrails, cast-iron columnar supports, a U-plan configuration, and a carved blind arcade. The interior includes timber pews, a central timber-panelled organ case against the northeast wall, square-plan piers supporting a triple lamp standard, decorative cast-iron balusters flanking steps to a carved timber pulpit (dated 1871) and chair, the organ located behind, and a fielded ceiling with pierced circular ventilators. The hall has timber skirting boards and architraves, timber-panelled shutters and doors, an intact cornice, and fitted timber cupboards with a uniting mutule cornice.

The church is enclosed by squared rubble boundary walls with a stepped profile, an ashlar cope, decorative cast-iron railings, and similar gates featuring finialled spanning semi-circular arches.