Bonkyl Church

Bonkyl Church

A rectangular-plan church of four bays dated 1820, substantially restored and altered with Romanesque details by architect George Fortune of Duns in 1905. The building is constructed of harl-pointed cream sandstone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. It features a sandstone belfry to the west and the remains of a crocketted pinnacle to the east. A lower, crowstepped porch adjoins the west side.

The walls are detailed with a raised base course, architraved cill course, and raised eaves course. Droved quoins and droved long and short surrounds frame the openings. The principal architectural ornament comprises round-arched windows to the south and east with scalloped capitals surmounting columnar reveals and mullions, round-arched pediments with nailhead mouldings, and stepped cills. The porch features plain, chamfered surrounds to round-arched windows, while rear openings are square-headed with projecting cills.

The south elevation displays a gabled porch recessed to the outer left with a two-leaf boarded timber door centred at ground level, fitted with decorative iron hinges. The round-arched surround features engaged columns flanking the entrance with scalloped capitals and a round-arched pediment decorated with zig-zag moulding in the frieze. A blind, round-arched niche is centred in the crowstepped apex with a decorative finial above. The four-bay church body advances to the right with round-arched, bipartite windows flanking the centre and larger windows to the outer left and right bays.

The west elevation shows a two-bay porch offset to the left of centre with round-arched windows in both bays. Behind stands the nave with a finialled, classically-detailed belfry dated 1820 surmounting the gablehead. The bell within is dated 1782.

The north elevation comprises the main block with a near full-height, square-headed window at the centre and blind windows flanking at ground level. A window at first floor sits in the bay to the right. A gabled porch is recessed to the outer right with a boarded timber door at ground level, offset to the left, and a window above.

The east elevation features a round-arched, bipartite window at the centre with a crocketted pinnacle surmounting the gablehead.

The windows are predominantly border-glazed with plain leaded lights. Stained glass windows date to circa 1922 (east) and 1905 (west). The roof is covered in grey slate with stone-coped skews and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The interior porch is fitted with timber panelled dado and timber doors. A stair accesses an upper gallery with plain timber treads. The nave has a boarded timber floor, timber pews, painted walls with timber panelled dado (dentilled in places), and a large chancel arch centred at the east end. The arch is flanked by square-plan columns with scalloped capitals and a round-arched pediment with zig-zag moulding in the frieze. Blind, tripartite arcades to left and right feature engaged columns, decorative capitals, and round-arched pediments with dog-tooth mouldings. The communion table is similarly detailed and centred in the chancel. A timber panelled pulpit and octagonal font are also present. Fluted columns support the gallery at the west end, which has a timber panelled and dentilled front with tiered timber pews and a central timber door accessing the bell rope. Various wall memorials are present throughout.

The irregular-plan graveyard surrounds the church with various stones dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including table-top monuments, classically-detailed stones and memento mori.

The site is enclosed by rubble boundary walls with arched coping to rubble quadrant walls flanking the main entrance. Tapering, polygonal iron gatepiers and two-leaf, hooped iron gates complete the enclosure.