Chapel House And Burial Ground, Roman Catholic Church Of Our Lady Of Perpetual Succour, Chapeltown

Chapel House and Burial Ground, Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Chapeltown

This group comprises a substantial church, adjoining chapel house, and burial ground, with origins reaching back to the early 19th century. The present church, designed by John Kinross (architect to the Marquis of Bute), was built in 1896-97 in the Scottish Romanesque style, replacing an earlier chapel.

The Church

The church is a rectangular building orientated roughly north-south, fronted at the south by a three-stage square gabled tower serving as the entrance. The tower features long and short angle dressings, crowstepped gable, apex cross, and grouped quatrefoil vents on each face. The entire exterior is harled with pink tooled granite dressings. A recessed pointed-headed doorway at the centre of the tower's north face contains double-leaf plank doors with ornate cast-iron hinges. Above the doorway sits a canopied niche housing a statue of Our Lady.

The nave comprises four bays, each lit by narrow round-headed lights with hoodmoulds and leaded glazing. The chancel is lit by a round-headed tripartite window below a continuous hoodmould on the east elevation, with a diminutive arcaded eaves band below. A lean-to sacristy extends to the west. The roof is slate throughout.

The interior is richly finished with stencilled decoration throughout the lofty aisles, continuing across a stencilled, panelled gallery front at the north end. The high chancel features plain walls beneath a richly decorated timber barrel-vaulted ceiling. A carved canopied reredos displays paintings of saints flanking a central image of Our Lady, all with gilded backgrounds. The altar has a five-panelled front, each panel illustrated with an angel holding a musical instrument. The church contains simple pine pews, a facetted pulpit decorated with vines on an ashlar base, and a marble font.

Chapel House

The Chapel House dates from 1830-40 and was raised to two storeys in the later 19th century. It is a symmetrical three-bay house facing south-east, with a three-window rear elevation. A two-storey, single-bay wing links it to the chancel. The centre door is masked by a late 19th-century gabled and glazed porch. Windows feature four- and twelve-pane glazing. The house has end stacks and a Tomintoul slate roof. The Chapel House formerly served as the presbytery.

Burial Ground

The burial ground lies to the rear of the church, enclosed by rubble walls, and contains 19th-century tombstones, many of local slate.

Historical Context

Abbé Paul MacPherson of Wester Scalan had wished to establish a Roman Catholic parish church at Scalan following the closure of the seminary in 1799 and the departure of Reverend James Sharp in 1808. Not until 1828 was he granted a piece of barren ground at Littletown of Eskemulloch (now Chapeltown), where he established a church and school. Both were superseded by the present buildings. The earlier church, probably designed in 1828 by Reverend Walter Lovi (Priest at Keith 1825-37 and also architect for Roman Catholic churches at Dufftown, Keith, Braemar, and Wick), is documented in a drawing held in the sacristy dated 1840.