Northmavine Parish Church And Churchyard, Hillswick

The Northmavine Parish Church and churchyard, located in Hillswick, dates from 1733, with alterations in 1764 and a significant interior remodelling around 1825. Further rebuilding took place in 1869 under the direction of Roderick Coyne. It is a two-tier, symmetrical Gothic hall church with a classical interior. The church comprises an entrance vestibule and stair hall to the south, a galleried hall to the north, and a single-story gabled vestry projecting from the west elevation. The walls are harled with droved sandstone ashlar margins and details.

The south gable is symmetrical, featuring a pointed-arch, two-leaf, four-panel timber entrance door within a projecting, bracketed surround displaying a carved shield. Blind windows are centered above the entrance and in the gablehead, with regular fenestration at lower and upper tiers in the flanking bays. A stone cross sits atop the gable on a corbelled octagonal base.

The west elevation is near-symmetrical, with a single-story gabled vestry projecting at the lower tier. The vestry includes a window on its north elevation and a corniced, flat-roofed porch on its south side, with regular fenestration in the remaining bays.

The north gable is symmetrical, featuring regular fenestration at upper and lower tiers in the outer bays. The centre bay is blank at ground level, with a plaque at the upper tier inscribed “ERECTED 1869.” A single pointed-arch window is centred in the gable above, and a Celtic cross is positioned at the apex.

The east elevation is symmetrical with regular fenestration.

The interior features symmetrically disposed, droved ashlar dog-leg gallery stairs to the east and west in the entrance vestibule, with decorative cast-iron balusters and timber handrails. The main hall has vertically-boarded wainscoting and pews, and cast-iron columns with decorative brackets supporting a panelled U-plan gallery extending along both the east and west walls. A classical, panelled timber pulpit includes a perron stair with decorative cast-iron balusters and a timber handrail, and the back is framed by fluted pilasters rising to an octagonal canopy featuring a finialled ogee dome.

Six-pane timber fixed-lights are present on the south and side elevations of the hall, with border-glazed patterned glass to the north elevation. The vestry has a six-pane timber sash and case window. The roofs are covered in purple-grey slate, with sandstone ashlar skew copes. A stugged sandstone ashlar wallhead stack, corniced with circular cans, is centred on the west elevation.

The churchyard is enclosed by a battered, harl-pointed rubble wall with a rubble cope. Square rubble gatepiers with droved ashlar pyramidal caps are centred on the south elevation, and these support decorative two-leaf wrought-iron gates.