St Nicholas

Event ID 1124486

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1124486

The RCAHMS Photographic survey of the High Kirk of St Nicholas (The Mither Kirk) of 2006 was augmented by a Threatened Buildings Survey on 23 March 2022. This was prompted by uncertainty over the future of the building, the West Kirk having closed for worship and the East Kirk remaining a partially gutted shell. The opportunity was taken to improve our records of St John’s, the Oil Chapel located in the medieval north transept.

St Nicholas now consists of three distinct parts. The West Kirk, designed by James Gibbs 1751-5 lies on the site of the original nave. The Medieval Crossing and Transepts are now St John’s, the Oil Chapel and the Irvine of Drum Aisle. The East Kirk was rebuilt in 1835-7 by Archibald Simpson on the site of the original chancel. The medieval fabric of original building is most visible in the Crossing, the Transepts and in St Mary’s Chapel below the East Kirk.

St John’s, the Oil Chapel in the North Transept, was paid for by the oil and gas industry to mark the 25th anniversary of North Sea Oil. It was dedicated in June 1990. Tim Stead designed all the furniture including the screen and Shona McInnes designed the stained-glass window in the north wall. The Chapel was designed as a home for the Oil and Gas Industry Book of Remembrance and an annual service of remembrance is held here at St Nicholas. The Book of Remembrance recording lives lost in the service of the industry can be seen by contacting The UK Oil & Gas Chaplaincy. St John’s, the Oil Chapel has understandably become linked with the Piper Alpha Disaster of 6th July 1988 but was not designed specifically as a memorial to that disaster.