Old Parish Church, Academy Street, Nairn

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 12/03/1981 Local Authority Highland Planning Authority Highland Burgh Nairn NGR NH 87916 56405 Coordinates 287916, 856405 — John Starforth, 1893-7. Large double cruciform 1st pointed Gothic Church. 4 stage tower (100 feet high) with stepped angle buttresses at east containing main entrance divided by central trumeau and enriched with carved tympanum under gabled porch. Triple light to 2nd stage; paired light to 3rd; 3 louvred belfry lights to each face, crenellated parapet. Tower flanked by 2 storey circular stairtowers with conical slate roofs. Body of church symmetrical with wide buttressed and pinnancled canted gables, 2 bays and wide gable "transept"; gabled west elevation. 1, 2, 3 and 5-light lancets, some cusped to both ground and gallery. Steeply pitched slate roof with tile cresting. All bullfaced rubble with ashlar dressings. Interior: near triangular plan with horse-shoe shaped gallery to three sides; original pine fittings exist; panelled front to gallery, pews, bowed panelled doors, ornate pulpit. Pine braced rafter roof springing from stone corbels enriched with stiff leaf decoration. Font: Andrew Davidson, Rome (sculptor). White Carrara and greenish Siena marble, 3'4" high octagonal basin supported by pillarets on octagonal base. Stained glass: in west wall by John Hardman's studios, 1932 and 1942. South transept by Douglas Strachan, circa 1946, as memorial to W R Pirie and grandson. — Ecclesiastical building in use as such. Font gifted in 1899.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.