Conservation work restores unicorn to its rightful place

Stonemason used old photographs to recreate statue outside church

A statue of a unicorn has been restored to its place on top of a medieval church overlooking the Carse of Gowrie near Perth.

Kinfauns Old Parish Church lies on Coronation Road near Kinfauns and is likely to have been the route Scottish kings took to Scone for their coronation.

The unicorn tops off conservation work to the 15th Century structure thanks to Tay Landscape Partnership (Tay LP) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES).

The restoration of the building and unicorn statue was a long-running conservation project by Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust.

Tay LP collaborated with the team from @rchitects Scotland Ltd, T&M Stonemasonry and stone carver Michelle de Bruin, who worked on the unicorn finial.

Michelle based the new unicorn on old photographs and made the horn from a piece of oak.

The Charteris Gray burial aisle, on which the unicorn is mounted, has internal plasterwork of a similar style and its motif is included on the coat of arms.

Conservation work on the church was tricky as it had suffered for many years from ivy that damaged the structure.

The repairs carried out by stonemason Billy Traill have allowed safer public access to this scheduled ancient monument.

The conservation work was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Tay LP funders, match funded by HES.

Sophie Nicol, historic environment officer from the Tay LP, said: “This has been a team effort of pulling together resources to record, repair and safeguard an important but neglected historic building and it’s great that it will now be enjoyed by future generations”.

Oliver Lewis, HES senior casework officer, said: “Throughout the entire conservation process the project team have been uncovering previously hidden details relating to the way that the church was built, used and adapted over the centuries, and we are therefore excited that the community will shortly be able to safely explore the church for themselves.”

This has been a team effort of pulling together resources

The statue is back overlooking the Carse of Gowrie.