Buchanan Parish Church And Churchyard, Milton Of Buchanan

Buchanan Parish Church, built between 1761 and 1764, was designed by John Adam and constructed by Alexander Gowan. It stands at the northwest edge of Milton of Buchanan, centrally located within a large, rectangular churchyard on an elevated site. The church is aligned east to west and features a projecting north laird's aisle, creating a traditional T-plan layout. It represents an example of the work of a significant 18th-century Scottish architect.

The symmetrical north elevation, with three bays, incorporates a projecting gabled entrance wing. This wing was partially remodelled in 1938-9 with the addition of a flat-roofed, canted porch, featuring a shallow, segmentally-arched sandstone doorpiece and a rectangular window above, both with keystones. The gable is topped by a stone bellcote—likely added in the late 19th or early 20th century—with an ogee roof and a cross finial. Later 20th-century additions are found at the northwest re-entrant angle and the west gable. The south elevation presents four bays, each with round-arched windows, and the east gable includes a Venetian window.

A fire in 1938 destroyed the church's interior, which was subsequently refurbished by Clarke & Bell & JH Craigie. The main body of the church retains a T-plan layout, with the communion table and pulpit at the east end. The west end features a classical, pilastered timber doorpiece with a round-arched window above. The short north aisle, containing the Montrose family pew in a partitioned corner, is separated from the entrance vestibule by a timber-panelled wall. The vestibule also contains a timber stair with turned balusters and newels, leading to the vestry above, which has three multi-pane windows overlooking the main body of the church. The joinery dates from the 1938-9 refurbishment and includes simple timber pews and pilastered timber panelling along the dado height, displaying revealed rubble walls above, as plaster was not replaced after the fire. The ceiling is coombed, with arch-bracing springing from timber corbels.

The church is constructed from white-painted harled rubble, with a pitched graded slate roof, stone skews, and skewputts. It has timber multi-pane windows with leaded square quarries of plain glass. A gable-end stack is present on the west gable, and there are two-leaf, timber panelled doors.

The churchyard primarily contains later 19th and 20th-century headstones on the north side; a selection of 18th and early 19th-century table tombs and headstones are located on the south side. A small section in the west contains the graves of members of the Graham family, including the 6th and 7th Dukes of Montrose. Near the entrance gates, a pedestal sundial from 1922, with a copper dial (the gnomon is missing), commemorates a former minister.

The churchyard is bounded on all sides by a random rubble wall. The north boundary has an entrance gateway with wrought iron gates and square-plan ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal copes. A double gate is at the center, flanked by single hand gates on either side.