| Corstorphine Old Parish Church | |
| Other Name: | Corstorphine Parish Church |
| Location: | Dower House, Corstorphine High Street, Corstorphine |
| Country: | Scotland[1] |
| Denomination: | Church of Scotland |
| Former Name: | St John's Collegiate Church |
| Founded Date: | 15th century |
| Founder: | Sir Adam Forrester and Sir John Forrester |
| Dedication: | John the Baptist |
| Heritage Designation: | Historic Environment Scotland |
| Designated Date: | 14 December 1970 |
| Architectural Type: | Gothic |
| Floor Count: | One |
| Spire Quantity: | One |
| Parish: | Edinburgh |
| Presbytery: | Edinburgh |
| Minister: | Rev Moira McDonald |
Corstorphine Old Parish Church, formerly St. John's Collegiate Church, is at the old centre of Corstorphine,[2] a village incorporated to the west area of Edinburgh. Built in the 15th century, in the churchyard of a 12th-century or earlier chapel, the former collegiate church was listed category A by Historic Scotland on 14 December 1970.[3]
King David I granted the chapel at Corstophine to Holyrood Abbey in 1128. Before that, it was a satellite chapel of St Cuthbert's Church. By 1158, it had become a church, with altars to Saint Anne and the Holy Trinity.
A burial chapel was added to the church in 1404 by Sir Adam Forrester, chamberlain to Anabella Drummond, who died by 1405.[4] The church was then dedicated to John the Baptist. The church was elevated to a collegiate church by his son Sir John Forrester in 1429.[5]
The foundation of the current church (on the inner eastmost wall) says the church was built in 1429 in the same churchyard as the earlier parish church, and was completed by 1437. The sandstone church was built with a tower and stone, octagonal spire, rectangular chancel, and a nave with transepts. This included the absorption of earlier Gothic features from the previous building and the erection of the characteristic barrel vaults, which may have concluded by 1436.
The remodeling of the more sophisticated, pre-existing vault like the one in the south transept shows a structurally slightly arbitrary pattern of two semi-quadripartite arrangement of ribs rising from a springing point at the centre of the bays.[6]
In 1548, Thomas Marjoribanks, son of Thomas Marjoribanks, burgess in Edinburgh, replaced Robert Marjoribanks (probably his uncle) upon the occasion of Robert's death, as prepend (vicar) of Corstorphine Kirk and continued through the Reformation until 1567. Rev Andrew Forrester became minister in 1590.[7]
Gogar was added to the parish in 1599.[8]
In 1634, the collegiate church was dissolved and in 1646 the building became the parish church. At that time the 12th-century church was razed and a new aisle was added to the collegiate fabric.[9] Stones from the former church were used to built the porch. In 1828, a restoration by architect William Burn resulted in a two-storey sacristy, renovation of the nave, removal of a 17th-century aisle, and building of a new aisle and transept.
The east choir and the adjacent sacristy are the only original roofs that survived and the vaults of the nave and aisle were re-made in precast concrete ribbed panels during the restoration from 1903 to 1905 by George Henderson.[10]
The church has Scottish heraldic panels and pre-Reformation relics. James Ballantine supplied the Victorian stained glass and Gordon Webster and Nathaniel Bryson supplied the 20th-century windows. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper was the inspiration for the heads on the carved corbels made by William Birnie Rhind. On the grounds are a war memorial, vault and gatehouse, surrounded by a boundary wall and cast iron gates.
The ancient stone font, in the south transept, was brought from Gogar church in 1955.
In 1913 a chapel of ease was built to the north-west: St Anne's on St John's Road by Peter MacGregor Chalmers.[11]
The church includes several windows by the Bannantine Brothers, two by Nythaniel Bryson and one by Douglas Strachan.
Also of note is the memorial window to the mother (Jessie Chrystal Finlayson) and father (John Macmillan) of women's rights campaigner Jessie Chrystal Macmillan. Jessie Chrystal Macmillan, known as Chrystal shared the same name as her mother Jessie Chrystal Finlayson and she never married.
see[8]