Dyke Parish Church is a Georgian church in Dyke, a village in

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

. In active use by the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

since it was built in 1781, it stands on the site of a mediaeval church, and incorporates an older

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

, which is now the church hall and

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. An early mediaeval Pictish cross slab, and a twelfth century coin hoard were discovered in the grounds while the church was being built. It was designated a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

in 1971.

History

The church was built as a rural parish church in 1781, at a cost of £525, by James Smith of Aldearn and James Smith of Nairn, on the site of a mediaeval church, first mentioned in a charter of the late twelfth century. Walker and Woodworth assert that the original church was dedicated to St Andrew, but other scholars have written that it was dedicated to St Ninian. During the construction of the church, a twelfth century hoard of around 100 coins was discovered, as was an early mediaeval pictish cross slab, which is now installed in the grounds of

Brodie Castle Brodie Castle is a well-preserved Z-plan tower house located about west of Forres, in Moray, Scotland. The castle is a Category A listed building, and the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. ...

. At the east end of the church is a transverse wing which was predates the rest of the building, and is thought to have been attached as an aisle to the older church. It was built around 1693 as a

for the Brodie family, and now serves as a church hall and

, connecting to the church via a narrow corridor through the east gable. A

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

porch was added between the former mausoleum and the main church building in 1853, and the south face was remodelled in a gothic style by Matthews and Lawrie in 1867. The building underwent renovation in 1952, in which a new ceiling was installed (covering the pulpit's

sounding board A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platf ...

), but the original 1781 layout remained unchanged. A war memorial gate into the north west extension was built between 1920 and 1922 by Peter Macgregor Chalmers, a Glasgow architect who worked and wrote extensively on ecclesiastical buildings. The church was designated a

in January, 1971. In 2018, the church was awarded a grant for £10,000 by the Berry Burn Community Fund to improve accessibility to the church and hall.

Description

The church is a rectangular building, with a six-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

south front of pinned

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, with rubble sides and rear, and with tooled and polished

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

detailing. The round-headed windows are large, reaching almost to the top of the wall. At the apex of the west

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

is a tall ashlar

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

, with a wheel mechanism to ring the bell. The left gable has

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

door grill, which is now blocked. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

porch, between the church and the hall, is also now blocked; it has a pointed-arch doorway with columns and a

hoodmold In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin , lip), drip mould or dripstone is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This moulding can be t ...

with now-weathered carvings of a bearded man and a woman, and a tall

Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

at the apex. The south gable of the church hall has an ornate doorway of ashlar sandstone, with

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

supporting a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

, and a large window with intersecting stone tracery. The interior features a U-plan

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: * Gallery (surname), a surname Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery ** Online art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ' ...

, and an unusual triple-decker pulpit in the centre of the south wall, with stairs leading up to it from left and right.

Current usage

The church is an active

place of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is s ...

, operated by the Dyke and Edinkillie Parish Church of Scotland, with regular Sunday services at 10 am on Sundays, except on the first Sunday of each month when services are at 11 am, rotating between the parish's two buildings.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Church website
Church of Scotland churches in Scotland Churches in Moray Category A listed buildings in Moray 18th-century Church of Scotland church buildings