Church of Scotland, Carrbridge, Inverness

Following the creation of the United Free Church of Scotland in 1900 by an attempted merger of the Free Church with the United Presbyterian denominations, the Free Church building in Carr Bridge was allocated under Parliament’s Churches (Scotland) Act [1905] to remain with the Free Church, following the wishes of a ‘blocking’ minority of the membership. The Free Church minister, however, Rev. William Morrison, and a majority of the congregation adhered to the new United Free ‘uniting’ church. The Countess Dowager of Seafield having granted a site, a church building was erected and opened in 1909. ‘The new church is an unpretentious, but effective, building of granite, with a quaint belfry and a picturesque entrance door. The interior, with pitch pine roof and pews, and severely simple windows, is comfortably seated for 280 worshippers. The church stands on a site unexcelled in the district, at the high road leading through the village and in close proximity to the Public Hall. The plans were drawn by Mr Cullen, Edinburgh’ [?of Cullen, Lochhead and Brown, architects, Glasgow]. [Strathspey Herald, 10 August 1909] A branch of the established Church of Scotland’s Duthil Parish congregation having been worshipping in the Carr Bridge Public Hall since 1893, they amalgamated with the UF congregation in the UF church once the two denominations united nationally after 1929. Eventually the older Duthil Parish Church (in the settlement of Duthil, not the village of Carr Bridge) was closed in 1967 and sold in 1974, leaving the former UF building as the only Church of Scotland place of worship in the parish. Consequently, it was renovated in 1976, incorporating a stained-glass window, a number of commemorative tablets, the communion table and chair, and the pulpit (these three dating from 1912) from Duthil Parish Church. The internal lay out of the building was also altered. The church is used in 2023 for regular Sunday worship and other meetings, though the congregation is part of the charge of Abernethy with Boat of Garten, Carrbridge and Kincardine. The building was listed as of ‘special architectural or historic interest’, category B, in 1986.

The 1909 building was a version of a T-plan church: a rectangular nave running the full length of the building, N-S, with transepts (of unequal lengths) at the S end lying E-W. The longer one to the W contained a hall, screened off from the church by a folding wooden screen. Additional accommodation in the church for, say, funerals, could thus be offered. The shorter eastern transept is part of the main section of the church and now houses the organ. Externally, it is mirrored by an entrance porch extension at the N end of the building, also coming off the E wall. A catslide extension, part of the original design of the E face, filled the space between the transept and the porch and housed a side aisle to the main church. An open stone belfry rises from the junction of the entrance porch with the main E wall. The roofs of the main church, the transepts and the entrance porch are ridged and slated, those of the porch and transepts rising to two-thirds the height of the church.  A square ventilation tower breaks the line of the main ridge. The porch is open with low walls, its roof supported by wooden pillars and edged with a decorative bargeboard. Windows are rectangular, though that above the original location of the pulpit (ie central to the S gable of the main section) is semi-circular. The main body of the church is lit by three pairs of smallish windows on each of the W and E walls. The N gable of the church, the W gable of the W transept and the E gable of the E transept have sets of three narrow windows, the middle rising higher than those flanking it. These sets of three are framed by squared granite and enclosed by a granite rounded arch. In the original design, the windows on the N gable would have lit the interior of the church. The stonework was also designed for decorative purpose. All main sections are constructed of squared blocks of differently sized reddish granite, while the frames of the windows and courses running beneath and above the windows of the nave are tooled and distinctly grey, as is the coping of the porch. The whole impact, as viewed from the road, remains ‘effective’, as reported in 1909 and was not altered by the renovation of 1976. At the S end of the building an extension, in matching stonework and with its ridge the same height as those of the transepts, provides for a corridor, toilet and kitchenette. A further extension to the E, flat-roofed, houses a door to the hall with a lobby. The design of the church – the rounded arch stonework for the windows, the decorative bargeboard, the colour of stone used – took into account the proximity of the Public Hall so that the two buildings complement each other.

The centre of the church is taken up by a single block of pews, of varnished pitch pine, facing towards a raised platform at the S end that contains the pulpit, communion table, font and lectern. Aisles run along the W wall and between the main section of pews and those of the side-aisle under the catslide. The renovation of 1976 followed advice given in 1962 by the General Assembly’s Advisory Committee on Artistic Matters; the current internal lay-out of the church is essentially that of 1976. Space was taken at the N end of the building to provide an entrance lobby, accessed via the existing porch, and off it what was called ‘The Duthil Chapel’, to house memorial tablets brought from closed Duthil Parish Church. The tablets are still there, though the room is used less as a chapel and more as a vestry. The new partition wall was constructed with timber taken from Duthil Church. Facing into the church side of the partition is set a stained-glass window also brought from Duthil Church. The text ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest’ runs round the edges of the design, which shows Jesus as the Galilee preacher, surrounded by pensive women, men and children. The bottom dedication reads: ‘In memory of a loving mother Mary Anne Grant, Manse of Duthil, wife of Alexander Mann, Nairn. Born 1828. Died 1876.’ Mrs Grant was a daughter of the Rev. William Grant, minister of Duthil 1820-62. The window was designed by J. Henry Dearle, painted by Titcombe Stokes and Watson and made by Morris & Co, 1914. At the S end of the building, a ‘chancel’ raised two steps above the floor was originally enclosed by a rail and contained a central pulpit and communion table. After 1976 the rail, pulpit and table were removed. In their place were imported the pulpit from Duthil Parish Church, self-standing and dating from 1912, now located on the W side of the sanctuary to allow the Communion Table (also from Duthil Parish) to take the central position. The new Table and Pulpit being of oak, while the rest of the woodwork remained pitch pine, the Artistic Matters Committee recommended the acquisition of a new matching oak font. To replace the old central pulpit on the S wall, they recommended ‘On the wall space below the window a gilded wooden cross would provide a central feature without competing with the window above’; both suggestions were implemented. The stained-glass ‘O Lord, how great are thy works’ that is the feature of the sanctuary, and the focus of attention for the church,  was designed by Gordon [McWhirter] Webster. A fantasy rural scene with a loch, trees and mountains, semi-circular, this was given in memory of Rev. Andrew Doak and his wife Julia Ann Mann. When dedicated in 1949, it replaced the clear glass window in the S gable above the original pulpit. Minister of Trinity [United] Free Church, Aberdeen, Mr Doak was a regular summer visitor to Carr Bridge, had assisted with pulpit supply and as a locum for the church, and had presented a set of communion cups and a flagon for the UF church before it opened, while Mrs Doak had presented the church with its bell. The ceiling of the church, from 1909, is dark-varnished pine paneling, arched but not reaching to the ridge. Artistic Matters commented that therefore, and also due to the small size of the windows, the church was overly dark. New lighting was installed in 1994. A small resource and family space has been created at the back of the side aisle, beside the entrance door. The original Communion Table, presented in 1909 by Mrs R. Gurney (a regular summer visitor from Newcastle upon Tyne, staying at Dalrachney), is now located in the entrance lobby.

Surveyed by    

Frank D. Bardgett

14 May 2023