Hobkirk Church And Graveyard

Hobkirk Church and Graveyard

Hobkirk Parish Church was designed by the architect David Rhind in 1863 and remains in active ecclesiastical use. It is a 4-bay rectangular-plan Gothic church with a dominant square-plan tower, built from red stugged sandstone with droved ashlar dressings.

The church features a 3-stage tower heavily buttressed and topped with a pyramidal roof and weather vane. The building is characterised by pointed-arch Y-traceried windows with predominantly diamond pane leaded lights, set within timber frames. Lancet windows appear in the porches and vestry. A base course and dentilled eaves course run around the structure, with a corbelled parapet to the tower. Shouldered buttresses project from the tower, nave, porches and vestry.

Two gabled porches project from the north elevation of the tower and the south-east corner of the nave. Both have steps leading up to deeply recessed columned doorways with hoodmoulds terminated by label stops. The doorways are fitted with 2-leaf timber-boarded doors with decorative iron hinges. The sawtooth finialled ashlar-coped skews are topped with gable finials, some now missing. The roof is covered in Welsh slates with zinc ridges, and cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.

Inside, the church has an open trussed and boarded timber roof carried on stone corbels. A round-headed chancel arch with hood mould and label stops separates the chancel from the nave. The north section beyond the chancel arch is raised and originally functioned as a laird's loft, accessed through the north porch. A central aisle runs through the nave. Box pews survive in the sanctuary and on the south side of the chancel arch; those on the south notably retain fixed drop-leaf tables within their enclosed areas, an unusual survival.

The church was re-orientated in 1905 when the pulpit was moved from the south to the north end. Memorial plaques mounted on the walls of the raised north section record the former function of this space as a laird's loft. The two gabled porches, although now serving different congregational functions following the re-orientation, are very similar if not identical in design, which is unusual for churches of this period.

The graveyard contains gravestones from the late 18th century and 19th century in the area adjacent to the church, with 20th century stones in an extension to the north. Several family burial enclosures survive, including those for the Elliot of Clifton Park, Scott of Crumhaugh, Wauchope and Pinnaclehill families. These enclosures were originally set into the north wall of the graveyard but are now free-standing due to the graveyard extension and removal of parts of the wall.

The graveyard is enclosed by rubble walls with ashlar gatepiers featuring moulded bases and octagonal pointed capstones. The gates are 2-leaf iron construction.

David Rhind (1808-1883) was a prolific architect whose practice was predominantly devoted to commercial and public buildings in the classical style. Hobkirk Church demonstrates his competence as a Gothic designer, though this was not his primary strength. The church occupies a striking position in the landscape and can usefully be compared with Caddonfoot Parish Church, which Rhind designed just two years later. Both churches employ similar details including solid angled buttresses on the nave and porches, steeply pitched roofs and simple Y-traceried windows, although Caddonfoot lacks Hobkirk's large tower.