Church Hall, St Ringan's United Free Church, Lower Hillhead, Lerwick

Church Hall, St Ringan's United Free Church, Lower Hillhead, Lerwick

A substantial cruciform church of Early English gothic design built in 1885–6 by R G Sykes of Liverpool, set on a sloping site. The building is accompanied by an L-plan church hall dating from circa 1900 to the south-west.

The church comprises five bays with gabled transeptal bays flanking the entrance elevation to the north. A crenellated square tower is centred to the south, with gabled transepts flanking to east and west, a gabled chancel to the south, and a single-storey vestry over basement projecting at the centre with flanking porch and wing. The walls are built of stugged sandstone rubble with stugged sandstone ashlar dressings, polished at the arrises, with base and eaves courses. The arrises are chamfered and windows have sloping cills, all featuring pointed-arched lancet forms.

The tower displays a blank south elevation with buttresses extending left and right. The north elevation contains lancets to the outer left and right, with diagonal buttresses at the corners, framed blank panels with floriate stops centring the east and west elevations and flanking lancets, together with a string course and cornice below a crenellated parapet.

The north entrance elevation is symmetrical, featuring ashlar steps leading to a central pointed-arched two-leaf vertically-boarded timber door with decorative iron hinges. A wheel window is centred above, with pointed-arched windows flanking the door. Buttresses with ball-finialled pyramidal caps frame the elevation.

The east elevation facing Lower Hillhead contains a stepped three-light lancet window centring a gabled transept advanced in a bay to the left, with a flat-roofed porch featuring a vertically-boarded timber door recessed in a re-entrant angle to the left. A three-bay nave elevation extends to the right, with bays divided by buttresses. The centre bay has a two-light lancet window with single lancets in the flanking bays. A gabled bay slightly advanced to the outer right is framed by buttresses and contains a pointed-arched vertically-boarded timber door with decorative iron hinges at ground level. Above in the gablehead is a roundel with moulded surround containing a quatrefoil superimposed with a carved dove.

The south elevation features a stepped five-light lancet window centring the chancel gable. A single-storey over basement gabled vestry projects at ground with narrow windows flanking the centre at principal floor level and a two-flue wallhead stack with circular cans at the south-west corner. Matching flat-roofed wing and porch flank in re-entrant angles.

The west elevation mirrors the east elevation except for a tall exposed base course, a carved cross in a roundel of the left gable, and paired pointed-arched windows at the wing recessed to the right of the transept gable.

The roof is purple-grey slate with cast-iron profiled gutters and downpipes. The tower is crowned by a pyramidal slate roof with a wrought-iron weathervane. Triangular ashlar skew copes with gablet skewputts are carried throughout.

Early twentieth-century stained glass depicting the Madonna and Child is set in the north wheel window, whilst stained glass in the south wheel window dates from 1892 by R G Sykes. Plain glazing is set into the reveals of other nave, transept and tower windows. The vestry and south-west wing contain four-pane and plate glass timber sash and case windows.

The interior reveals a panelled inner vestibule porch with panelled doors fitted with three-pane glazed uppers and an ancient stone set in the wall to the right. Four-panel two-leaf timber inner entrance doors lead to the cruciform nave. Large pointed-arched openings are present at the crossing with smaller arches accessing the transepts. Vertically-boarded timber wainscoting and pews line the nave. A stencilled frieze in gothic script runs over the entrance door. Windows have splayed reveals and a plain coved ceiling is supported on hammerbeam trusses bearing on stone corbels. An organ of 1897 by Harrison and Harrison of Durham is installed in the west transept, featuring a panelled case with trefoil decorated frieze and open frame above, crocketted at the corners and containing stencilled organ pipes. A balustraded dais supports an octagonal timber pulpit.

The church hall is a rectangular gabled structure of stugged squared and snecked ashlar, droved at the arrises. A partially harled gabled porch projects at right angles from the north-west corner. Tripartite windows with taller central lights are set to the principal gables, with a polished ashlar relieving arch over the east window. A base course and buttresses frame the elevation, and narrow windows appear to the side elevation and porch. Three-pane timber sash and case windows and plain fixed lights are used throughout, beneath a purple-grey slate roof with prominent ashlar skew copes and gabletted skewputts.

Boundary walls of random rubble extend to the east and north. At the north-east corner, stugged crenellated copes have been raised to stugged gabled gatepiers. Random rubble walls, including a retaining wall, enclose the west and south boundaries.