Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
New life for kirk as family home
A 215-YEAR-OLD Angus kirk is being brought back into use as a family home.
Category A-listed Tealing Church has lain empty for decades.
Its deteriorating state saw it added to Scotland’s buildings at risk register.
But Angus councillors have now welcomed Gilbert Nicoll’s plan to transform the historic Kirkton of Tealing building into a three-bedroom family house.
And they say the restoration of the rural building will be a “wonderful thing”.
The conversion will retain important memorials inside the church – and see the pulpit kept as a living room feature.
And the old B-listed hearse house is to be brought back into use for car parking.
Its owners say the kirk will be the subject of a “sympathetic” renovation.
Windows which have been boarded up for years will be reinstalled in the same design and the open plan ground floor will retain existing doors and woodwork.
It is planned to recycle some of the broken pews for internal finishings.
The upper level will feature a gallery overlooking the downstairs living area.
Heating will be from a woodburning stove and air source heat pump.
Originally built in 1806, the building sits on the site of a former medieval church, thought to be dedicated to St Peter.
It was altered in 1895 and again much later, but closed in the mid-1980s.
Although the building has been previously described as “severely plain”, the church was given a category A listing because of the important sculpted stones inside it.
They include a polished granite memorial stone to the Scrymsoure Fothringham family.
And there is a memorial stone to Ingram of Kethenys, priest at Tealing and Archdeacon of Dunkeld, dated 1380.
Planning officials recommended approval for the project.
Councillors unanimously backed the plan.
Brechin member Kenny Braes said: “I think the conversion is a wonderful thing.
“It will stop it going to rack and ruin and being lost to the community.”
Committee convener David Lumgair said there had been a number of successful residential conversions of Angus churches, including Dunnichen in his council ward.
“I look forward to seeing it happening in Tealing,” he added.
Another nearby kirk could be set for residential conversion after being sold at auction last month.
The 900-year-old Lundie church was bought for £40,000.