Church architecture in Scotland incorporates all church building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the earliest Christian structures in the sixth century until the present day. The early Christian churches for which there is evidence are basic masonry-built constructions on the west coast and islands. As Christianity spread, local churches tended to remain much simpler than their English counterparts. By the eighth century more sophisticated ashlar block-built buildings began to be constructed. From the eleventh century, there were larger and more ornate Romanesque buildings, as with Dunfermline Abbey and St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney. From the twelfth century the introduction of new monastic orders led to a boom in ecclesiastical building, often using English and Continental forms. From the thirteenth century elements of the European Gothic style began to appear in Scotland, culminating in buildings such as Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilt Melrose Abbey. Renaissance influences can be seen in a move to a low-massive style that was probably influenced by contacts with Italy and the Netherlands.
From the mid-sixteenth century the Reformation revolutionised church architecture in Scotland. It resulted in a rejection of the elaborate ornamentation of existing churches. New churches were produced in a plain style, often with a T-plan that emphasised the pulpit and preaching. This style was adopted by both Presbyterian and Episcopalian wings of the Scottish Kirk, but there were some attempts to introduce Baroque elements into church building after the Restoration. In the eighteenth century the influence of James Gibbs led to churches that employed classical elements, with a pedimented rectangular plan and often with a steeple. This classicism continued into the early nineteenth century, but became increasingly controversial and began to be rejected for a version of the Gothic Revival, which flourished into the early twentieth century. Between the world wars, a form of Neo-Romanesque became the norm for new churches. In the second half of the twentieth century new churches were highly influenced by Modernism, resulting in rectangular and irregularly shaped buildings, built in new materials, although many of these were later demolished. As the level of new building reduced from the 1970s there was a move to functional and unambitious new churches, but in the 1980s there was a move back to more striking and original designs.
Middle Ages
Early churches
The introduction of Christianity into Scotland from Ireland from the sixth century led to the construction of the first churches. These may originally have been wooden, like that excavated at Whithorn,J. R. Hume, Scotland's Best Churches (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), , p. 1. but most of those for which evidence survives from this era are basic masonry-built churches, beginning on the west coast and islands and spreading south and east.I. Maxwell, A History of Scotland's Masonry Construction in P. Wilson, ed., Building with Scottish Stone (Edinburgh: Arcamedia, 2005), , pp. 22–3. Early chapels tended to have square-ended converging walls, similar to Irish chapels of this period.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 8. Medieval parish church architecture in Scotland was typically much less elaborate than in England, with many churches remaining simple oblongs, without transepts and aisles, and often without towers. In the Highlands they were often even simpler, many built of rubble masonry and sometimes indistinguishable from the outside from houses or farm buildings.I. D. Whyte, K. A. Whyte, The Changing Scottish Landscape, 1500–1800 (London: Taylor & Francis, 1991), , p. 117.
Monasteries also differed significantly from those on the continent, and were often an isolated collection of wooden huts surrounded by a wall.C. Evans, "The Celtic Church in Anglo-Saxon times", in J. D. Woods, D. A. E. Pelteret, The Anglo-Saxons, synthesis and achievement (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1985), , pp. 77–89. At Eileach an Naoimh in the Inner Hebrides there are huts, a chapel, refectory, guest house, barns and other buildings. Most of these were of timber and wattle construction and probably thatched with heather and turves. They were later rebuilt in stone, with underground cells and circular "beehive" huts like those used in Ireland. Similar sites have been excavated on Bute, Orkney and Shetland. From the eighth century more sophisticated buildings emerged. The development of early ashlar masonry produced block-built stone buildings, like the eleventh century round tower at Brechin Cathedral and the square towers of Dunblane Cathedral and The Church of St Rule.
Romanesque
After the eleventh century, as masonry techniques advanced, ashlar blocks became more rectangular, resulting in more stable walls that could incorporate refined architectural moulding and detailing that can be seen in corbelling, buttressing, lintels and arching. At the same time there was increasing influence from English and continental European designs, known as Romanesque. The Romanesque style had its origins in Roman building techniques and early churches in the Byzantine Empire and ItalyT. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 10. and was characterised by massive reinforced walls and round arches that could bear the weight of rounded barrel vault roofs.M .Perry, M. Chase, J. R. Jacob, M. C. Jacob, T. H. Von Laue, Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (Cengage Learning, 2012), , p. 270. The introduction of this style to Scotland is associated with the ecclesiastical reforms that began in the reign of Máel Coluim III (r. 1058–93), bringing continental ideas of monasticism and church organisation to the country. The oldest Romanesque church in Scotland is probably the small chapel built for Máel Coluim's wife Margaret on Castle Rock, Edinburgh, with a vaulted semi-circular apse. In the twelfth century a number of new parish churches were built by lords on their land. They were often small aisless buildings with two or three connected cells, each of diminishing size, ending in a rounded apse. One of the best preserved is at Dalmeny in Lothian.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 11.
St. Regulus Chapel at St. Andrews dates from around 1150 and was probably built as a reliquary church. Only the aisleless choir and tall square tower survive. Its detailing derives from work on a church at Wharram-le-Street in England and it may have been carried out by the same Yorkshire masons.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 12. The first monastic establishment built in the Romanesque style was Dunfermline Abbey, begun at the behest of Queen Margaret about 1074. An existing small chapel was expanded with a square choir and rounded apse. About fifty years later it was replaced by a grander cruciform church of which only the nave now survives.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 13. The chevron pattern in the detailing on the piers was modelled on that at Durham Cathedral. Similarly, St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney, begun in 1137, may have employed masons who had worked at Durham, with which it shares a similar pattern of great round arches based on thick cylindrical pillars.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 12–14. The arrival of the new monastic orders in Scotland from the twelfth century led to a boom in ecclesiastical building using English and continental forms, including abbeys at Kelso, Holyrood, St Andrews and Jedburgh, one of the most complete Romanesque buildings to survive.A. Macquarrie, Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), , p. 122.
Gothic
The style that developed from the Romanesque, originating in twelfth-century France, is now known as Gothic. It was characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. It was brought to Britain by the Cistercians, whose abbeys retained thick walls, but pierced them with lancet arches with slender pointed arches. This style became characteristic of the early Gothic in Britain and can be seen at Dundrennan Abbey, begun around 1142, which resembles religious foundations in northern England.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 15–16. The style can also be seen in the East end of Elgin Cathedral, which incorporated typical European Gothic mouldings and tracery. The best expression of the style is at Glasgow Cathedral, which elaborates Early English forms used at Lincoln and Rievaulx.
A more elaborate style known as Decorated Gothic, applying ornamentation to vaults and pillars, particularly using curved motifs, began to be adopted in the thirteenth century and was characteristic of Scottish church building in the fourteenth century. It was used at Dunblane Cathedral, built in the thirteenth century, particularly to decorate the nave and East end. At Fortrose in the Highlands the elaborate decoration of this style is still visible in the south aisle. One of the finest examples is Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries, a Cistercian monastery, named after the burial of John de Balliol's heart alongside the body of his wife.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , pp. 32 and 49. The period of the Wars of Independence (1296–1357) saw a large number of ecclesiastical buildings ruined, including Melrose and Jedburgh Abbeys. Church building was largely confined to the parish churches in the relatively secure areas like Fife, as at St. Monans, originally a church of the Dominican friars.T. W. West, Discovering Scottish Architecture (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 32.
In the fifteenth century, continental builders are known to have been working in Scotland. French master-mason John Morrow was employed at the building of Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilding of Melrose Abbey, both considered fine examples of Gothic architecture.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 57–9. Compared with after the Reformation, the interiors of churches were often elaborate, with highly decorated sacrament houses, like the ones surviving at Deskford and Kinkell. The carvings at Rosslyn Chapel, depicting the progression of the seven deadly sins, were created in the mid-fifteenth century. They are considered some of the finest in the Gothic style.S. H. Rigby, A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003), , p. 532. Late Medieval Scottish churches also often contained elaborate burial monuments, like the Douglas tombs in the town of Douglas.