Longforgan Parish Church, Main Street, Longforgan

Longforgan Parish Church is a Gothic hall church of mixed periods standing on Main Street. The building comprises a tower and spire at the west end dated 1690, a plain rectangular chancel dated 1794 that incorporates a 15th-century west wall, and chancel and gallery stair added by Alexander Hutcheson in 1899.

The church is built of rubble, with harl pointing on the south elevation of the chancel. The 1899 additions are stugged and snecked with ashlar dressings. Earlier parts have irregular quoins. The roof is slated throughout. A wallhead course runs around the building, with leaded coped skews and skew blocks. The east gable is finished with a cross-finial.

The two-stage tower with spire dominates the west gable. It has a slightly advanced first stage containing a door, and a tall second stage pierced by three round windows, with a date plaque on the lowermost. Round windows appear on the return elevations, and there are square-headed louvred belfry openings to the tower. At the top are two round blocked openings to the north, south and west elevations. The tower has a balustraded parapet above which sits a further set-back stage carrying the slated broached spire with lucarnes. Clock faces appear on the east and west faces, topped by a weathercock finial.

A two-stage stair tower recessed at the right re-entrant has a rounded angle, with a door and window to the first stage and three windows to the second stage with a curved roof. A single-storey rounded heating chamber with a door and curbed roof occupies the left re-entrant. Evidence of an earlier, smaller gable survives recessed within the current gable to left and right.

Large pointed windows with timber Y-tracery pierce the south elevation. The north elevation has rectangular windows with round-headed cross-shaped astragals and cathedral glass at gallery level. The chancel has stepped pointed windows. Tudor-arched doors and windows appear to the stair tower and chancel porches. The south elevation contains five windows, with the centre one blocked; a sundial is positioned at the left angle.

The east gable is advanced to the centre and contains a tripartite window. A datestone sits at the gable apex. Pentice-roofed porches with doors occupy the left and right re-entrants, with a window to the left return.

The interior features a boarded dado and a panelled gallery at the west end. Pews are of pitchpine with plain poppyhead finials. The chancel arch is pierless and round-headed, decorated with carved memorial panels to members of the Paterson of Castle Huntly family, commissioned from Robert Lorimer in 1900. A two-manual and pedal organ by John Compton Ltd of London, installed in 1924, occupies the gallery. An octagonal pulpit with carved panels of unknown date depicts various Biblical and allegorical scenes.

The chancel window is a memorial to William (died 1889) and Anne Brand (died 1885) of Mylnefield, designed by Robert Burns of Edinburgh. Memorial plaques on the north wall commemorate the Forrester family of Millhill and the Lyon of Ogil family (late 18th century). A 15th-century grave slab of John Gelychtly is also recorded on the north wall.

The Mylnefield pew contains fragments of a pre-Reformation font and a memorial stone to Appollonia, wife of David Lyon of Castle Lyon, dated 1698. An early bell presented by Earl Patrick is housed here. Two grave slabs on the north wall of the tower date to circa the 13th century. A grave slab on the south wall commemorates Andro Smyth, dated 1643.

The churchyard is enclosed by a rubble wall, round-and rubble-coped on all sides (north, south, east and west), with ashlar gatepiers at the north entrance. Tombstones span the 16th to 20th centuries, including a cast-iron Wilkie tombstone (1865), a large Gothic tombstone of the Low of Mylnefield family at the east wall, and several Paterson of Castle Huntly tombstones at the south wall, some designed by Robert Lorimer.

A rectangular-plan rubble building with a piend roof, possibly a hearse house, stands at the northwest angle with large paired doors facing Main Street. A small square-plan rubble building at the southeast angle of the original churchyard has a pyramidal stone slate roof, door and window. A lychgate at the original south wall provides access to the churchyard extension and features stepped walls and a quadrant.