The history is quite limited on this one, having checked canmore and BARR. However the information available does tell us that the church was opened on the 2nd December 1858 by the Reverend Dr Guthrie of Edinburgh. A gentleman by the name of MacDonald (unsure of who this was) described the church as a "chaste, comparatively plain Gothic nave... the church as a whole, in its external aspect and its internal arrangements, is such as secures a high degree of comfort for the congregation". Due to the demolition of another church in the area of the same name in the 1970s, this building became the parish church until 2002 when the congregation of St Mary's and the nearby St Andrews merged to form the new Blairgowrie Parish and this church was closed.
I really wasn't sure what to find inside on this one and so the explore was a bit of a gamble. As it turned out, the inside has been gutted spectacularly and so my initial feelings were "ah well". However, having ventured up the staircase to get a look over the main church hall, I noticed an old sign on a door that said "please do not ring church bell". I thought to myself, well maybe there is something worth seeing after all! So after hoisting myself up into the bell tower, there was some excellent remnants of the mechanics of the old church bell and what was at first a bit disappointing, turned into a bit of a wee gem to me!
Referencing back to the quote in the history part of this report, I can imagine a "high degree of comfort" in worshipping here as the large windows and grand Hall must have had something very soothing to all those who attended. Obviously the gutted out interior is a world away from that spiritually comforting building but I began to imagine rows of wooden benches and typical church features now sadly long gone.
This was the first time I felt brave enough to play around with the settings on my camera, changing aperture/shutter speed etc. Up until now, on every post I've uploaded, it has always been done on predetermined such as "landscape" or whatever. So please do let me know if, with your more experienced eyes, you can see some glaring amateur errors in my pictures.
Thanks for reading, please enjoy!
I really wasn't sure what to find inside on this one and so the explore was a bit of a gamble. As it turned out, the inside has been gutted spectacularly and so my initial feelings were "ah well". However, having ventured up the staircase to get a look over the main church hall, I noticed an old sign on a door that said "please do not ring church bell". I thought to myself, well maybe there is something worth seeing after all! So after hoisting myself up into the bell tower, there was some excellent remnants of the mechanics of the old church bell and what was at first a bit disappointing, turned into a bit of a wee gem to me!
Referencing back to the quote in the history part of this report, I can imagine a "high degree of comfort" in worshipping here as the large windows and grand Hall must have had something very soothing to all those who attended. Obviously the gutted out interior is a world away from that spiritually comforting building but I began to imagine rows of wooden benches and typical church features now sadly long gone.
This was the first time I felt brave enough to play around with the settings on my camera, changing aperture/shutter speed etc. Up until now, on every post I've uploaded, it has always been done on predetermined such as "landscape" or whatever. So please do let me know if, with your more experienced eyes, you can see some glaring amateur errors in my pictures.
Thanks for reading, please enjoy!
