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Field Visit
Date September 1986
Event ID 1082919
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1082919
This building stands in its churchyard 80m from the N shore of Loch Goil and 70m NE of the former manse, which was rebuilt in 1841 (en.1). The main body of the church measures 22.5m from E to W by 5.5m within 0.9m walls, and may incorporate some of the fabric of the late medieval parish church, although the only identifiable feature of that period is an early 16th-century tomb-recess in the N wall of the former chancel. A large aisle was added at the centre of the N wall in the 18th century, and a smaller session-house outside the opposite wall in the early 19th century, when most of the existing large windows were formed or remodelled. A porch was added to the N aisle in 1895, when some internal alterations were carried out, and the building was renovated in 1955 by Ian G Lindsay (en.2).
The masonry is of rubble, rendered externally, and the main block and N aisle have sandstone skews with slightly cavetto skewputts. The session-house has broader skews, terminating in a crenellated ashlar plinth which supports the modern bird-cage belfry, and its quoins of drafted ashlar return as a band across the gable at wall-head level. There are similar dressings in the four large windows in the S wall of the church, two of which are round-headed, and in the three large windows of the N wall. The windows of the N aisle have chamfered jambs and lintels of 18th-century character, as do the two doorways, each having a gallery window above, in the S wall. All of the windows are of sash-and-case type, and the two large round-headed openings have lancet-tracery in thearch-heads. There is no external evidence of the late 16thcenturyCampbell of Ardkinglas burial-aisle which formerly stood against the E wall and was demolished about 1850 (en.3*).
Internally the church preserves its 18th-century T-plan centred on the pulpit at the centre of the S wall, although the existing pews date from 1895. At the W end the early 19thcenturyDrimsynie loft is supported on two timber columns which are prolonged as fluted pilasters dividing the panels of its curved front. The fenestration of the N aisle, with two windows at an upper level in each side-wall, suggests the former existence of a gallery (en.4*), and there may also have been one at the E end, where there is a high-level window above the S door and the cornice of the tomb-recess in the N wall is cut in two places, possibly for joists. This end of the building, the medieval chancel, was later appropriated by the Campbellsof Ardkinglas, whose arms appear on the tomb-recess (infra, number 3), and the E wall is occupied by a large late-16thcenturymonument (number 6) incorporating the blocked entrance to their demolished burial-vault. In this area the floor-level appears to be unchanged, but the remainder of the church has a raised timber floor which is probably considerably above the level of the medieval nave (en.5*).
The existing coved and boarded ceiling was installed in 1888. The pulpit, which has panelled sides with a moulded cornice, was brought in 1955 from the disused church of 1791 at Kiltearn, Ross and Cromarty, and is probably of the same date (en.6*). A door W of the pulpit gives access to the session house, which was provided with an adjacent external door in its W wall and a fireplace in the N wall.
This church serves a parish including both shores of Loch Goil and the area between Loch Long and the watershed W of Hell's Glen and Glen Croe (en.7). During the first half of the17th century it also included Strachur parish, whose status in the medieval period is uncertain (see No. 101), and was united in 1618 with Kilmorich (No. 74). Proposals were made in 1642 to rescind this union, and in 1650 to form three separate parishes, but Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich appear to have remained united, although with separate churches (en.8).
The church is first recorded in the last quarter of the 14th century, and the dedication, mentioned in a papal mandate of 1392 and later sources, was to the ‘Three Holy Brethren', whose identification is uncertain (en.9*). At this period the patronage of the rectory, and probably also the perpetual vicarage, were held by the Campbells of Lochawe, and in 1441 Duncan Campbell assigned their revenues to his new collegiate foundation at Kilmun (No. 80). In the same year a papal indulgence was obtained for those giving alms to repair the church which was 'completely collapsed in its structures, roofs and edifices' (en.10). The close resemblance in plan to Kilneuair Church (No. 81) suggests that Lochgoilhead may have been rebuilt or extensively repaired at this period. In addition to the high altar, mentioned in 1488, a chaplainry at the altar of the Virgin Mary was endowed in 1512 by John Campbell of Ardkinglas, whose arms appear on the tomb recessin the chancel (infra, number 3) (en.11).
Between 1601 and 1618 two successive ministers of Lochgoilhead also held the office of archdeacon of Argyll, and this link was formalised when the chapter of Argyll diocese was restored in 1662 (en.12). The Campbells of Ardkinglas, as principal heritors in the parish, claimed the patronage, although the Earls of Argyll, as superiors, also claimed an interest in it (en.13). Following the reformed church's prohibition of burials inside church buildings, the Campbell of Ardkinglas aisle was probably built at the same time as the monument to Sir James Campbell (infra, number 6), before his death in 1592. Robert and John Douglas, wrights, received £88 Scots in 1644, in part payment 'for building the queir and repaireing of the kirk of Lochgoilshead' (en.14), but the extent of this work is not certain. The period at which the N aisle was added is also unknown, and it may have been a considerable time before 1792, when the building was described as 'old, and in bad order' (en.15). The addition of the session-house and enlargement of the windows may be attributed to the first quarter of the 19th century, and minor alterations including the building of the porch were carried out by the Glasgow architect, Campbell Douglas, in 1894-5 (en.16*).
FONT. The existing font, which is mounted on a modern pedestal, is a block of sandstone with bevelled angles, 0.50mby 0.47m by 0.36m in height. It incorporates a basin 0.32min diameter and 0.25m deep, whose upper part appears to have been widened for a metal bowl. There is no drain-hole, and its origin and date are uncertain.
RCAHMS 1992, visited September 1986
[see RCAHMS 1992 No. 87 for a description of the medieval and post-reformation funerary monuments]
