Port Of Menteith Parish Church

Port Of Menteith Parish Church

Built in 1876-8 to a design by architect John Honeyman, this Early Gothic church stands on raised ground at the north-eastern edge of the Lake of Menteith, forming the centre of the small hamlet of Port of Menteith alongside the former manse and the Lake of Menteith Hotel. Although the present building dates from 1876, a church has occupied this site since the early medieval period with connections to the nearby Inchmahome Priory.

The church is constructed of local freestone with sandstone dressings and comprises a rectangular body with a south-west tower, north-west entrance, five-bay nave and a north-east vestry. The dominant feature is a square-plan south-west belfry tower with broad clasping buttresses and a slated pyramid roof above the parapet. Paired hooded lancets with louvres pierce all four elevations of the tower, housing a peal of eight bells. A fine wrought-iron weathercock crowns the apex.

The western elevation contains the tower to the right; to its left a gable features three hooded lancets at gallery level with two smaller lancets below lighting the entrance vestibule. The main entrance is positioned to the north-west and comprises a triangular-headed Gothic arched doorway with colonettes to the splays, flanked by stepped buttresses, with a quatrefoil window at gallery level above. The north and south elevations each contain five bays marked by hooded lancets and divided by buttresses. A gabled vestry projects to the north from the main body at the north-east corner, lit by two narrow lancets with hoodmoulds and a vesica above; it retains a squat shouldered chimneystack. Unusually, a small arched doorway with timber boarded door in the boundary wall below provides direct access between the vestry and the lane. The vestry features a shouldered, chamfered doorway and a single lancet to its east return. The east gable is dominated by a large window of three circled cinquefoils inscribed within a triangular opening, with chamfered band course and clasping buttresses flanking it.

The exterior features corbelled skewputts to the gables with ashlar-coped skews and decorative stone crucifix finials to the gable apices. Pitched roofs are covered in graded grey slate with decorative red terracotta ridge tiles. Timber-boarded doors with decorative strap hinges serve the north-west entrance and vestry, whilst some cast-iron rainwater goods are visible.

The interior is plastered and features a timber gallery at the west end, supported on cast-iron columns. The ceiling comprises arch-braced trusses in stained ash with curved struts above the collars and cross-bracing under the spars. An oak chancel platform occupies a central position before the east wall, standing on an octagonal stone base finely carved with Late Decorated blind tracery panels. The oak pulpit, dating to circa 1905, sits on this platform. A white marble font with onyx pedestal stands nearby. The organ in the gallery is probably by Joseph W. Brook and features pipes gathered in a Gothic screen with a cusped ogee arch. The stained glass in the east window, executed by Stephen Adam in 1879, commemorates Sir James and Lady Campbell of Stracathro; the lancets feature red and yellow edging in geometrical tracery. Two memorial wall tablets stand in the vestibule: a pink sandstone aedicule to John Elphinstone Erskine of Lochend (died 1887) and a pedimented frame in grey sandstone to Matilda Graham (died 1839). The vestibule floor is finished with coloured tiles.

The churchyard contains predominantly 19th-century graves, though a number of older slabs and table tombs survive, with some gravemarkers dating from the 17th century. Random rubble boundary walls with end-on copes enclose the churchyard. Two entrances on the north side are accessed by short flights of stone steps. The main north-west entrance features substantial ashlar gatepiers with pyramid caps and cast-iron gates. A simpler entrance to the east of the church has ashlar gatepiers with flat coping and cast-iron gates of the same design as those at Menteith House, the former manse.