Gatepiers And Gravestones, Heriot Parish Church (Church Of Scotland) Including Graveyard Walls

Heriot Parish Church, a Church of Scotland building designed by J M Wardrop in 1874, is a 5-bay, T-plan church in the Early Decorated style, reminiscent of 13th century Gothic architecture. It features projecting transepts and a prominent tower with a gabled bellcote topped with a finial on the east gable. The church includes a gabled vestry to the southwest and a small porch at the northwest re-entrant angle. The exterior is adorned with hoodmoulded pointed trifoliate-headed arched windows, a large geometric tracery window in the north transept, and two lancet windows on the south transept and west gable, the latter featuring a cinquefoil. Arrow slit windows and decorative carved stone cross finials are present at the gable apexes. The building is constructed of red volcanic stone rubble, with blonde sandstone used for the stugged and droved chamfered quoins and margins, and render applied to the west elevation. A base course is visible on the porch, along with a banded eaves course.

The church has margined diamond pane leaded glazing and a 6-pane timber sash and case window in the vestry. The roofs are pitched slate, with a sawtooth stone roof on the bellcote, wide sawtooth sandstone skews, beaked skewputts, and stone ridges. Rainwater goods are a mix of cast-iron and plastic, and a bronze cockerel weathervane adorns the bellcote.

Inside, the church features a polygonal arched braced ceiling supported by beaked stone corbels over a symmetrical nave with a central aisle and side transepts. The walls are painted with droved chamfered sandstone window reveals. Furnishings include a timber pulpit, pitch pine pews, some box pews with doors, and integral tongue and groove dado panelling on the walls. The entrance has four-centred arched 6-panel timber doors and a barrel vaulted porch. An octagonal carved stone font is also present.

The graveyard walls, gatepiers, and memorials include 18th century stone memorials on the south elevation, featuring an arched gabled headstone and a pedimented stone with a winged angel head and an inverted egg and dart border, along with additional 18th and 19th century stones in the churchyard. The walls are predominantly made of rubble stone, with some concrete blockwork on the east and west sides. The rusticated square stone gatepiers support wrought iron memorial gates dated 1914-1919.