St Quivox Parish Church, St Quivox

St Quivox Parish Church is a building of medieval origins, significantly restored in 1595 and expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a single-story, galleried T-plan church. The original nave, dated to the medieval period, was restored in 1595 and is harled with polished sandstone dressings. A sandstone aisle was added in 1767 in the Auchincruive style, featuring a vermiculated base course, cill course, eaves course, and strip quoins. Further aisles, constructed in 1825 from tooled pink sandstone, extend at re-entrant angles to the east and west, displaying a base course, raised margins, ovalo-moulded eaves course, and strip quoins. The church has boarded and panelled timber entrance doors.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, with a four-bay design. A harled gabled bay projects to the left and incorporates a harled stair with stone steps and iron railings leading to a panelled door and a nine-pane fanlight. Another door is offset to the right of the ground floor, with a stone trefoil at the apex. A single window is on the right return. A gabled, two-story 1825 aisle is set at a re-entrant angle to the right, with windows on both floors and a blind window on the right return. A piend-roofed entrance porch sits in the re-entrant angle to the right, containing a door to the left with two two-pane fanlights, and a door on the right return. A recessed 1767 Auchincruive aisle is situated to the right, with the bay to the left partially obscured by the porch.

The south elevation of the Auchincruive aisle features a gabled design with a round-arched, pilastered window set within a broad, recessed, round-arched panel with impost detail, topped with a decorative stone urn finial. A burial vault lies beneath this section.

The west elevation is also asymmetrical, with a projecting harled gabled bay to the right, featuring a harled stair with stone steps and iron railings leading to a panelled door, a nine-pane fanlight, and an open bellcote with a bell at the apex. A gabled, two-story 1825 aisle extends at a re-entrant angle to the left, with centered windows on both ground and first floors. A single-story addition adjoins to the left, incorporating a door off-center to the right and windows on the left return. The 1767 Auchincruive aisle is located behind.

The south elevation of the nave is near-symmetrical with five bays, the centre bay blank. To the left, a tooled sandstone tablet, weathered, displays the Cathcart coat of arms and motto, below a granite tablet commemorating the 400th anniversary of the 1595 restoration. Regular fenestration is present in the flanking bays, and two two-pane skylights are in the attic.

The church is largely fitted with 12-pane and 16-pane timber sash and case windows, set within a graded grey slate roof with lead ridges. Coped stone skews are present, along with sandstone wallhead and gablehead stacks featuring circular and octagonal cans.

The interior, predominantly dating to 1767, maintains a T-plan layout with panelled galleries in each arm. Pitched pine pews radiate from a panelled, canted pulpit in the center of the south wall, accompanied by a fine classical sounding board. Timber doors lead to the center of the east and west galleries, while ground-floor doors are positioned below the depressed-arched south gallery, with access to the porch on the right and stairs to the burial vault on the left. Timber panelling runs below the dado, and a simple moulded ceiling completes the interior.