Achray Church

Achray Church

Trossachs Parish Church is a small church built in 1849 by the architect G. P. Kennedy of Glasgow. The church sits to the west of the village of Brig O'Turk in a picturesque position on the north banks of Loch Achray. Built by local benefactors to provide a place of worship for the tourists staying around Loch Achray, it served locals who had previously travelled to Callander to worship. The church is simple in plan and elevation, appearing older than its date suggests through the use of simple materials and building techniques. Detailing, where it exists, is simple and bold in scale, in an early Gothic style. It represents a well-preserved picturesque church of the mid-19th century, demonstrating the work of an architect significant to the area and showing the direct effects that the 19th century tourism industry had upon the development of the Trossachs area.

The church sits on an east-west axis and is approached from the north with Loch Achray to the immediate south. The main body is rectangular in plan, with an entrance porch to the south and a smaller single-room annex to the west. The three-bay nave is divided by evenly spaced large rectangular angle buttresses framing openings. The north wall has a double lancet window to the central bay with single lancets to the outer bays. The porch is set to the centre bay of the south (entrance) elevation, with flanking single lancets to the outer bays. The walls are finished by an over-scale plain ovolo-moulded eaves cornice, terminated at each end by large rectangular skewputts with ovolo-moulded undersides. A large three-lancet stained glass window dominates the gabled east end of the church, framed by angle buttresses. A corniced ashlar plinth sits atop the gable, with a round-arched ashlar birdcage bellcote with bell in situ. The annex to the west (which served as a vestry) may be mistaken for the entrance when approached from the road, as the main entrance on the south side is unsighted. The impracticality of this arrangement suggests the church was designed primarily to be seen as part of the landscape when viewed from the south side of the loch. The beautiful view across Loch Achray when leaving the church may also have been a factor in this unusual arrangement. The eaves treatment to the annex contrasts with that of the main church, with a convex eaves course and convex-shaped underside to the rectangular skewputts. The flat-topped gable was probably designed to avoid obscuring light from the east gable window of the main nave.

Interior

The interior was reoriented in the late 19th century, when the congregation turned to face the east wall, having previously faced west. This change made full use of the recently installed east window as a backdrop to the sermon. The stained glass, by A Ballantine & Gardiner, dates from 1893 and shows the story of the Good Samaritan. The three-bay rhythm of the exterior is continued internally. Large wooden pointed bracing arches spring from timber corbels positioned at mid-height of the nave wall. Narrowly spaced exposed timber trusses form the roof structure. There is dark stained timber pulpit with corresponding chancel furniture and pews. The interior is simply decorated with timber panelling to dado height and white painted plastered walls above. On the south wall of the nave is a green marble memorial plaque to Major General Limond, with a brass centurion figurine to the head and a brass hunting scene panel inset. The annex originally served as a vestry behind the original east altar; it is currently used to house a water closet and serves as an alternative entrance (2004). The south entrance vestibule houses separate wooden War Memorial plaques for the First and Second World Wars.

Materials

The walls are random rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings and squared snecked rubble to the buttresses. Windows are a mixture of diamond-paned lead frames with clear glazing and stained glass. Roofs are grey slate pitched with three diagonal stripes of grey fish-scale slates to the nave roof. The double doors are timber boarded (late 20th century) with asymmetrical patterned designs.

Graveyard, Boundary Walls, Gatepiers and Railings

The church and surrounding graveyard are bounded by a very low rubble wall, its small scale probably designed so as not to interfere with the surrounding views. An assortment of grave markers dating from the 1850s onwards sit back from the church near the boundary wall. The entrance is marked by a pair of monolithic stone gatepiers. A path leading from the roadside to the gatepiers is lined on both sides by cast iron park fencing railings.