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Dumfries, Maxwell Street, St Benedict's Convent
Nunnery (Late 19th Century) (1881)
Site Name Dumfries, Maxwell Street, St Benedict's Convent
Classification Nunnery (Late 19th Century) (1881)
Alternative Name(s) Corbelly Hill Convent, Corbelly Hall Convent; Convent Of The Perpetual Adoration
Canmore ID 78860
Site Number NX97NE 157
NGR NX 96684 75790
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/78860
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Troqueer (Dumfries-shire)
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Nithsdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NX97NE 157.00 96684 75790
NX97NE 157.01 9659775790 St Benedict's Presbytery
Corbelly Hill Convent was recorded on Tuesday 16th August as part of the Threatened Buildings Survey. On Tuesday 9th August 2022 a fire broke out affecting the northern part of this large building. The survey provides a record of the building after the fire but before any structural alterations or demolitions are undertaken to make the building structurally safe.
The dowager Marcia, Lady Herries funded the new convent for the nuns of the Perpetual Adoration on Corbelly Hill in Dumfries. The initial much larger scheme by Pugin and Pugin was exhibited at the Royal Academy and published in the Building News 30th December 1881. A more modest scheme designed by Pugin and Pugin was built in 1881 -4, presumably intended as the first phase of the grander published scheme. The initial building consisted of the chapel and an L-plan range of accommodation for the Convent. This was extended by James Barbour, not following the original plans, in 1890. He added the substantial block to the south to house the Convent school. The convent closed in 1988 and moved to Largs. Amongst other uses It later housed a temporary Sherriff court. The building has been empty for some time and has been suffering from vandalism.
Large Gothic, U-plan complex with enclosed garden. Chapel at NW, 6 bays and single transepts with unfinished stepped lancet gable. SE gable front to courtyard has bell-cote over rose window with cusped circles. Buttressed flanks with 2-light windows. Simple quatrefoiled tracery. 2 side chapels, adjoin transept, one with rose window, other with small apse semi-prismatic glass roof. Gabled porch projects from NW bay. (Historic Scotland)
Built as the Convent of the Perpetual Adoration. Convent was founded by Marcia, Lady Herries, the first nuns were brought from Arras.
Note
For Presbytery see NX97NE 157.01 (296597, 575796)
For Church see NX97NE 157.02 (296649, 575798)
Information from HES (C. DeDeo) 13 January 2025
