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Parish church and graveyard, still in ecclesiastical use. There is documentary evidence from 1275 of a church of Auchterhouse dedicated to St Mary. The present church was first built in 1426, but was demolished and rebuilt in 1630. Structural issues resulted in that church being mostly rebuilt using the same stones in 1775. The interior was recast in 1881 by Robert Blackadder, and was refurnished in 1910 by James W Mackison, who also carried out repair work to the church. It is a rectangular-plan church oriented East/West, with a chancel and sealed burial vault at the East and a square entrance tower projecting at the West. The South elevation, East gable and tower. The North elevation and part of the West gable is constructed in Aberdeen bond. There are grey slate roofs. The South elevation of the church is six-bay, with five margined square-headed windows that have twelve-pane sash and case glazing. The second bay from the West has a double-leaf door surmounted by a fanlight within a moulded doorway with a pilastered and keystoned segmental arch (probably 17th century). On the South elevation of the chancel, recessed from the church elevation, there are two paired Tudor-arched windows flanking a square-headed doorway approached by a short staircase. The doorway is moulded, with elaborately moulded jambs and inward sloping splay at the base, and is probably from the 15th century. The chancel has cavetto eaves course, and in the top Eastern corner there is an eroded sundial with a missing deflector. The West gable end has a central advanced two-stage tower. There is a doorway at the centre of the West elevation of the tower approached by a step flanked by modern metal handrails. The entrance consists of a two-leaf door in a roll-moulded doorway with blocks at the base and head of the jamb, and a blind keystoned round-headed fanlight above the lintel. There is a band course at the first-floor level, and the upper stage of the tower is slightly recessed. There is a first-floor door on the South return elevation that breaks the band course and is approached by an oversailing forestair with a plain metal handrail. At the top of the tower there are square-headed belfry windows windows to the North, West and South elevations. The window on the South elevation is louvered, and on the North elevation there is a second central window set below. The top of the tower has a corbelled cornice, surmounted by a stone sweeping pyramidal roof with a base, annulet and cap, with a weather cock at the apex. To the North of the tower there is a single ground-floor window on the West gable end of the church. The East gable end has a small blocked chamfered opening to the crypt to centre bottom. A tombstone is affixed to the wall above ground level at the North, a sunken sundial at the West. There are also two central corbel stones within the gable. One is dated 1630, and the other with a fleur-de-lis and an eroded inscription 'Ave Maria'. The North elevation of the church is blank. There is a later lean-to on the recessed North elevation of the chancel with a tall brick stack. The lean-to was added at some point between 1860 and 1900. Inside, the nave has a boarded dado, with a moulded cornice and flat ceiling. There are consoled beams, a door screen, pews, a pulpit and a communion table from 1910. The chancel is approached by a 15th century moulded gothic arch, and there is fielded wainscot panelling within the chancel, formed from 18th century box pews in 1910. Other features of note include a Medieval octagonal pillar font, an Act of Parliament clock (circa 1797) by James Ivory of Dundee on the West wall, a repentance stool with a new seat in the chancel, a Second World War mural memorial on the North wall and a Valentine memorial on the West wall. In the South chancel wall there is a stained glass memorial window to Reverend W Mason Ingils, who was the minister between 1878 and 1912. There is another stained glass memorial window on the West wall to Reverend J Kirkland Cameron, who was the minister between 1912 and 1942, by A L Russell. There is a bell inscribed 'Parish of Auchterhouse 1834', and the kingpost roof has some numbered timbers. There are two mort cloths and the remains of what may be a mediaeval font or holy water stoop in the attic. The graveyard surrounding the church has rubble boundary walls and ashlar gatepiers at the North and South with moulded tracery caps, and gateposts at the North-East formed from moulded tracery. The tracery at the gatepiers are probably re-used remains of the masonry from the earlier church. There are tombstones from the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. There are also three early-19th century burial enclosures on the West wall, constructed from droved ashlar with a corniced rear wall with an open pediment and side panels and cast-iron railings. There has been a modern graveyard extension to the West. A quatrefoil that was removed during the 1775 rebuild has probably been reused at Dronley Mill (NO33NW0030) circa 1.5 miles to the South.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Angus
HER -
NO33NW0011 - AUCHTERHOUSE PARISH CHURCH