Chapel Of Our Lady Of The Assumption And St Meddan, St Meddans Street, Troon

Chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Meddan

This cruciform-plan church in Scots Late Gothic style was designed by Reginald Fairlie and completed in 1911, with a passage and presbytery added in 1914. The building occupies a prominent position on St Meddans Street in Troon.

The church is constructed from squared and snecked bull-faced cream rubble sandstone, with polished sandstone dressings (some lightly droved) and red sandstone chequering to the apse base. It features a squat three-stage rectangular tower at the front (liturgical west), surmounted by a crocketed spire; a five-bay nave; and a polygonal apse centred at the rear (liturgical east). A single-storey, eight-bay arcaded passage with polygonal columnar mullions and polished voussoirs connects the church to the presbytery on the south side.

The architectural detailing is refined throughout. A base plinth fronts the building, with moulded string courses, corbelled parapets, and moulded copes. Buttresses feature stepped battering with pyramidal pinnacles. The chancel and transept chapels are marked by crowstepped gables. Chamfered reveals frame the tower and spire. Window surrounds are finished in polished long and short sandstone. Nave windows are round-arched; those to the chancel and apse are pointed-arched, many incorporating decorative tracery patterns including loop and curvilinear designs. Chamfered cills are consistent throughout, with square-headed windows to remaining openings.

The north-west entrance elevation is dominated by the tower, which contains a round-arched two-leaf timber panelled door with stop-chamfered, architraved surround at ground level. Above this sits a large four-light round-arched window with mouchette tracery that breaks the string course. A figurative sculpture of Our Lady in a hooded niche surmounts a buttress to the left, while the corbelled parapet is decorated with sculpted apostolic symbols. To the outer right, a buttressed bay recessed into the elevation houses a single window for the baptistery. A recessed stair tower to the outer left comprises single windows at upper stages and terminates in a crocketed crown spire with cruciform finial. A single-storey five-bay transept projects to the outer right, featuring a single timber door in the penultimate bay and bipartite windows elsewhere.

The north-east elevation displays regularly-spaced round-arched nave windows set within buttressed bays, each with decorative tracery and pyramidal pinnacles breaking the parapet. A recessed stair tower at the outer right has a timber door at ground level and single windows at lower and upper stages. A figurative sculpture of St Meddan is set in a corbelled, hooded niche at first-stage level. A pointed-arched four-light window with decorative tracery and moulded stops to its hoodmould is centred in a projecting, crowstepped bay offset to the left of centre (north transept chapel). The apse is recessed at the outer left.

The south-east rear elevation features a projecting five-sided buttressed apse. The central bay contains blind polished panelling at its upper stage, flanking a central corbelled niche. Two-light pointed-arched windows with cusped tracery occupy the remaining bays to left and right, each surmounted by crocketed pyramidal pinnacles. A crowstepped gable is recessed behind. Chapels are recessed to left and right; a two-storey bay containing single stair lights occupies the outer left; a single-storey sacristy adjoins to the south.

The roof is grey slate with crowstepped skews to the chancel and transepts. Cast-iron rainwater goods are throughout.

The interior is of high architectural and artistic quality. A five-bay arcaded nave is supported by droved ashlar octagonal columns with plain capitals and square bases. Flat-roofed aisles feature round-arched braces springing from these columns, with stone benches lining the walls. A narthex at the west contains an organ loft above; a timber organ remains in place. A pointed chancel arch leads to the east, with a round arch behind it. The chancel has been rearranged but retains a stone, marble and mosaic reredos with a large hanging crucifix over the altar. Panelled screens divide the side chapels.

The north chapel features a sculpted Madonna positioned at the front of an arcaded screen with polygonal columns dividing alcoved bays, beneath a decorative painted frieze. An open timber roof spans the interior with carved apostles protruding from hammerbeams and braces springing from columns. Regularly-spaced carved narratives depicting the stations of the cross line the aisle walls (these are now replacement plaster moulds on wooden bases). Timber pews installed by Pratt and Lunardi in 1969 furnish the nave. An octagonal font with linen fold carving details to the pulpit complete the fittings.

Windows throughout feature predominantly small-pane stained, leaded glazing with some decorative stained glass.

A stepped and coped sandstone boundary wall encloses the site, though railings are missing in parts.