Churchyard, Colmonell Parish Church, Manse Road, Colmonell

St Colmon Parish Church, Colmonell, is a rectangular-plan church in the Early English Gothic style, with origins dating to 1591 and its present core built in 1772. It sits on an elevated churchyard site at the western end of the village of Colmonell in the Stinchar Valley, fronting Manse Road. The church was significantly recast and enlarged by David Bryce in 1849, and further external and internal alterations were carried out by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1899.

The building is constructed in coursed granite rubble with contrasting ashlar dressings, moulded and pointed hoodmoulds, and angled buttresses. The south elevation is rendered. An open bellcote sits atop the east gable. The main entrance is through a porch addition on the east elevation, slightly lower in height than the main body of the church. This porch has two pointed arched windows flanking a chamfered entrance opening and a blind oculus window in the gable apex. An off-centre gabled porch projects from the north elevation. The west elevation features three tall lancet windows beneath a continuous hoodmould. On the south elevation, a lintel and two datestones set into the wall above one of the buttresses read in date order: 'HEIR IS ANE HOUS BU[I]LT TO SERVE GOD, 1591 / 1772 / 1849'. A further datestone beside the exterior choir gallery entrance reads '1899'. The east porch and the balustraded exterior stair to the choir gallery on the southeast corner of the church were both added by Lorimer in 1899 and are visible on the 1908 Ordnance Survey map.

The interior, as recorded in 2023, largely dates from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Fixtures and fittings designed by Robert Lorimer in 1899 include an oak reredos, carved altar, and pulpit. The stained pine pews and a carved timber font — made in memory of Captain Peter Norman Tinn, who died in 1942 — are also notable features. The pipe organ was built in 1908 by Norman and Beard of Norwich; its decorative case was designed by Lorimer and sculpted by woodcarvers William and Alexander Clow. There are 13 stained glass windows in the Arts and Crafts style, designed by Louis Davis, Douglas Strachan, Ballantine and Gardiner, James Humphries Hogan, and H B Powell. The triptych in the west elevation is by Louis Davis and was donated by Robert Finnie McEwan of Bardrochat House.

Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864–1929) was one of the foremost Scottish architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a leading promoter of the Arts and Crafts style in Scotland, known particularly for his work on country houses. He renovated nearby Bardrochat House for Robert F McEwan in 1906, and through his friendship with McEwan — an advocate and local landowner — also worked on the village war memorial in Colmonell. Louis Davis (1860–1941) and Douglas Strachan (1875–1950), who contributed stained glass here, were among the most renowned artists of the period.

The churchyard contains over 400 memorials, including gravestones dating from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Among them is a headstone dated 1772 commemorating Matthew McIlwraith, a Covenanter who died in 1685. The Knockdolian Vault, dated 1663 and located beside the western boundary wall, is rectangular on plan, roofless, and topped by a stepped balustrade; it contains memorials to the McConnel family of Knockdolian. The site is enclosed by a rubble-built boundary wall with a rounded cope. The main churchyard entrance has a pair of squared gatepiers with ball finials and iron gates.

The church has a long history on this site. St Colmon of Ella, reputedly a nephew of St Columba, is thought to have brought Christianity to the area around 600 AD, and a church has existed here since at least 1179. An earlier church is depicted on Blaeu's Atlas of Scotland of 1654. The Statistical Account of Scotland of 1792 describes the earlier church, dated 1591, and records that it was taken down and the present building erected on its foundations in 1772. Historical mapping — including a village plan of 1815 and Ordnance Survey maps of 1855, 1894, and 1908 — shows that the footprint and layout of the churchyard, boundary wall, and Knockdolian Vault have not significantly changed over time. The 1855–57 Ordnance Survey Name Book describes the church as neat and substantial, erected in a "plain Modern Style" at the expense of the parish heritors.

The church is included within the Colmonell conservation area and retains its historic setting, including a visual relationship with the nearby manse, which is listed separately at category C.