Churchyard, Moulin Church

Churchyard, Moulin Church

This is a simple Gothic rectangular aiseless church with a centre tower and slated pyramid spire, designed by John Campbell Walker of Edinburgh in 1831. The building was rebuilt and the spire added in 1875, with a porch added after 1926.

The church is constructed of roughly coursed snecked rubble with droved and stugged margins. Openings feature segmental heads. The buttresses are 2- and 3-stage sawtooth-coped with voussoirs and stop-chamfered arrises.

The north (principal) elevation is symmetrical with five bays divided by buttresses. The advanced centre tower dominates this face. Tall windows occupy the flanking bays. Over bays 2 and 4 are small jerkin-headed bipartite dormer windows with trefoil-headed tracery and decorative cast-iron finials. Two small ridge ventilators sit above these windows.

The tower is three stages tall with full-height diagonal buttresses at each corner and a pyramidal spire topped with a decorative cast-iron cockerel weathervane. The first stage has a timber door to the north and a square-headed window to the west. A drip course runs along the north face, giving way to the second stage which features a window below a louvered roundel on the north, east and west faces. A moulded course marks the transition to the third stage, which has trefoil-headed, slate-roofed, bipartite louvered lucarnes with small blind roundels and decorative cast-iron finials on each face.

The south elevation displays a tall window in each of the five bays, divided by buttresses, with three dormer windows matching those on the north elevation positioned over the centre bays.

The east (entrance) elevation is broad and gabled. A later small pitch-roofed porch occupies the centre with a blind roundel in its gablehead. A pointed-arch timber door opens on the return to the right, and two trefoil-headed windows sit on the return to the left. A further lean-to addition with a door and small window adjoins to the right. A tall window sits at the second stage, and the gablehead is finished with a stone cross finial.

The west elevation is also broad and gabled, featuring a 2-leaf square-headed timber door at the centre with a single window above and a stone cross finial. Flanking diagonal buttresses support this elevation.

Diamond-pattern leaded bordered glazing with coloured margins appears in the dormer and porch windows. Replacement bottom pivot timber windows feature an 8-pane glazing pattern. Grey slates cover the roof with ashlar-coped skews.

The interior is notable for its fine galleried space with an open ceiling. The porch contains a dedication plaque reading "erected by members, parishioners and friends, in memory of Duncan Macalister Donald Minister of Moulin 1882 - 1926". The roof is a queenpost truss with barleytwist queenposts. A horseshoe gallery runs around the interior with panelled fronts and barley-twist pilasters on moulded brackets and plain columns. Fixed timber pews and boarded dadoes complete the seating arrangements. A curved stair with barleytwist balusters leads to a polygonal pulpit with barleytwist pilasters. Classical marble murals commemorate former ministers and those who fell in the First and Second World Wars.

The churchyard is enclosed by an 18th and 19th century rubble wall with pyramidally-coped square-section ashlar gatepiers and decorative cast-iron gates. The graveyard contains a predominance of 19th century stones with some early relief-carved examples including winged skulls, death heads and trade emblems. Two early grave slabs known as "Crusader graves" each bear a medieval sword carved in relief, the largest inscribed with the later initials "WMD" and date "1808". Other early carved stones include one inscribed "17 DM (carved heart) MT 86" and a memorial to Finlay Robertson dated 1789 featuring a winged angel head. An east wall mural tablet is inscribed "SACRED TO THE PIOUS MEMORY of MRS SUSAN CAMPBELL Daughter of LORD NEIL CAMPBELL and Wife of JOHN STEWART ESQ of Urrard Who departed this life AD 1740 Aged 30 Years Erected by HER SON NEIL AD 1803". Some tablestones rest on 12 fluted columns. A Celtic Cross, an obelisk memorial, and an elegant Victorian angel memorial with uplifted arm complete the graveyard monuments.