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St Margaret Episcopal Church Braemar

Event ID 1091085

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1091085

The TBS was asked to record St Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Braemar following the decision to close the church and offer the building to the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust. This is the most important church designed by Ninian Comper in his native Scotland. The RCAHMS carried out a photographic survey of the building in December 1979. This survey augments that work with further photographs and a measured survey.

The late Donald Findlay wrote the definitive history of the church in November 1991 and Andrew Wright of Law and Dunbar-Naismith Architects has produced an extensive report on the condition of the church in 2000. Both these documents are held in the NMRS.

The original church was built of wood and opened in 1880. It was enlarged by the addition of two transepts in 1891. The only element surviving from this early phase is the wrought iron archway in memory of William Bracken dated 1894. After 1895 a building committee was formed to raise money to build a stone aisle for winter worship now called the Lightfoot Aisle. During the construction Miss Eliza Jane Schofield donated enough money for the entire church to be rebuilt.

Comper used a variety of Scottish sources in his design. The East window is based on that of Greyfriars Aberdeen demolished in 1891. Iona Abbey was used a source for the tower windows and Pluscarden was a source for the windows in the Lightfoot Aisle.

Mr Farquharson of Invercauld supplied the pink granite from Callater Moor. His family remain the only ‘heritors’ of the church. The Duke of Fife gave the old stone slates from Old Mar Lodge demolished in 1895 and the dressings are of Arbroath Freestone.

All the furnishings and fittings of the church were designed by Comper. Of particular note is the wonderful series of stained glass windows and the complete set of elaborate altar frontals.

The church is suffering from severe water penetration which has led to some outbreaks of rot. This is following phase one of a restoration programme funded by Historic Scotland which unfortunately exacerbated the problem due to a problem with the mix of the new lime mortar. RCAHMS November 2001 STG

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