I’m excited to launch my interactive map of every Scottish Episcopal place of worship ever, from 1689-2021.
This project to list and geolocate all places of worship began around 2015 with a plan to provide some visualised data for a book I was planning on this topic. Hopefully I can now get back to the book!
How to use the map
The map can be opened in a new window from this link.
You can zoom and pan around the map, and click on points to see more details. Entries described as ‘closed: 2021’ are churches open at the time of publication.
Sharp dots mark exact locations; fuzzy blobs show places of worship which could not be precisely geolocated. The key is on the right, but can be seen under ‘map and tools’ > ‘layers and legend’ > episcopal churches gis > hover over the small rectangle.
Exploring the data
It is interesting to find the exact locations of closed churches on google street view (or on the ground) as some buildings have been repurposed while others have disappeared without trace.
On my computer I can see all churches open in a certain year, or select only buildings of a certain type, which unfortunately the online app doesn’t support. However, here are a couple of screenshots of this kind of selected data:


Please let me know at eleanormharris@gmail.com if you spot any inaccuracies on the map, or can supply additional data, such as precise locations.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to David Bertie, whose book Scottish Episcopal Clergy supplied most of the initial information on long-lost meeting houses; and to Canon Allan Maclean who gave me his database of church buildings as a starting point. This was supplemented by a great deal of hunting on NLS historic maps and local church and history websites to pinpoint the exact locations of former churches.
Places
The following places of worship are linked from the map, providing more information and photographs:
Auchindoir
Back to main Scottish Episcopal place of worship map page Church website (external link) Auchindoir’s places of worship were: 1a. Rhynie (1689-1716) Location 1b. Kildrummy (1689-1717) Location 2. Meeting house (1717-1745) 3. Clova (1745-1858) 4. St Mary (1858-present) Visited 2 April 2021. Stone church by William Ramage of Aberdeen. Location
Scottish Episcopal places of worship interactive map
I’m excited to launch my interactive map of every Scottish Episcopal place of worship ever, from 1689-2021. This project to list and geolocate all places of worship began around 2015 with a plan to provide some visualised data for a book I was planning on this topic. Hopefully I can now get back to the … Continue reading “Scottish Episcopal places of worship interactive map”
Whig matriarchs and tory missionaries: episcopalian women in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh
A Paper delivered to the Scottish Church History Society, 3 November 2018 Edinburgh at the beginning of the nineteenth century: the height of the Scottish Enlightenment, the start of the romantic period. Scotland is enjoying peace after years of Jacobite civil war, but the French Revolution has challenged the idea that progress will be plain-sailing. … Continue reading “Whig matriarchs and tory missionaries: episcopalian women in early nineteenth-century Edinburgh”
Happy 200th birthday, St John’s Edinburgh
200 years ago this week, St John’s Church in Edinburgh was consecrated, on 19 March 1818. This is interesting to me for two reasons. First because I have been a member of the choir of St John’s (which was founded at the same time) for almost a fifth of that time, and second because I … Continue reading “Happy 200th birthday, St John’s Edinburgh”
St John’s 200
About ten years ago, the Rector of St John’s Princes Street, the Edinburgh church where I sing in the choir, gathered together a very small group of us interested in history. The question was how to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the church in 2018. All of us expressed interest in different areas. I was … Continue reading “St John’s 200”
Back amongst the Celts
The combination of a showery bank holiday and an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland gave me a chance to revisit my first old artistic love, the art of the Celts. There was knotwork of course, and the point was made that this is really characteristic of Anglo-Saxons rather than Celts, something I discovered in Jarrow and Hexham. … Continue reading “Back amongst the Celts”
Shakespeare and Scott: the British Bards
Fashions in accolades change over time. When he was still the anonymous author of the Waverley Novels, Walter Scott was frequently described as a new William Shakespeare. Nowadays, Scott is more likely to be credited with the invention of the historical novel. To our modern artistic tastes, in which originality is all, the comparison with … Continue reading “Shakespeare and Scott: the British Bards”
St Johns Edinburgh and the Battle of Waterloo
The congregation of Bishop Sandford in Edinburgh, the subject of my PhD research, built their striking new chapel of St Johns in 1818. So it is not surprising that a few years earlier, when still meeting in their little classical Charlotte Chapel in Rose Street, they should have some Waterloo connections. Charlotte Chapel, Rose Street, … Continue reading “St Johns Edinburgh and the Battle of Waterloo”
The Great Blank
I’ve just rediscovered this very funny rant by John Ruskin, speaking in 1853 to the citizens of Edinburgh, about how their architecture was tasteless because they failed to allow themselves to be inspired by nature. You might not agree, but if you compare buildings built in Edinburgh after 1853 to those built before, you’ll see … Continue reading “The Great Blank”
Venice in Edinburgh
In a scaffy corner in the east end of Edinburgh, down the cobbled, dirty-puddled close that is West Register Street, hides a secret treasure: a Venetian Gothic warehouse, built in 1864. The architect was William Hamilton Beattie, twenty-two years old and still operating under his father’s firm’s name of George Beattie and Sons. He signed … Continue reading “Venice in Edinburgh”