Undiscovered Scotland

 

For such a sparsely populated area, Glen Esk can offer a remarkable richness of churches, with three still active in the glen and signs on the ground of a number of earlier churches dating back as far as the arrival here of St Drostan in the early 600s.

The Maule Memorial Church was built following the 1843 schism in the Church of Scotland that led to the foundation of the Free Church. The land on which the church stands was granted in 1852 by Fox Maule Ramsay to his friend and leader of the Free Church, Thomas Guthrie, when he succeeded as the 2nd Lord Panmure.

Both men are commemorated in the excellent stained glass in the church, while Fox Maule Ramsay is of course also remembered in the name of the church itself.

The church was designed by an architect from Liverpool, a Mr Hay, while the building was undertaken by Robert Dinnie. The church bell was a gift from a Glasgow shipbuilder, George Thomson.

The schism was healed in the 1930s and Maule Memorial Church was joined with Lochlee Parish Church under a single minister. These days, services are held on the last Sunday of each month at the Maule Memorial Church, and occasionally at the Lochlee Parish Church.

Visitors are welcome to the Maule Memorial Church. Internally the appearance owes much to a restoration completed in the early 1990s. The high-backed pews are painted in a light colour to complement the white walls and steeply sloping ceiling, its shape highlighted by the dark wood beams.

One unusual feature is a partial screen that looks as if it enables the rear portion of the church to be separated from the remainder. It's always tempting to interpret something like this in terms of the wall that once separated two divided congregations at Holy Rude Church in Stirling. The reality is probably more prosaic and connected with making the internal space more flexible at the time of the 1990s renovation.