Dyke Parish Church

Dyke Parish Church stands in the village of Dyke in Moray, a rectangular Georgian building completed in 1781. It occupies the site of a mediaeval church first recorded in a charter from the late twelfth century and incorporates a 17th-century mausoleum now used as the church hall. An early mediaeval Pictish cross slab and a hoard of about a hundred twelfth-century coins were unearthed during its construction. The church was granted Category A listed status in 1971 for its architectural importance. The building shows layers of history in its fabric. A transverse wing added around 1693 as a Brodie family mausoleum predates the main church and now serves as the hall. A Gothic porch was inserted in 1853 and the south front remodelled in Gothic style in 1867 by Matthews and Lawrie. In 1952 a new ceiling covered the pulpit’s sounding board without altering the 1781 layout, and a war memorial gate designed by Peter Macgregor Chalmers was added between 1920 and 1922. Inside, the church has a U-plan gallery and an unusual triple-decker pulpit on the south wall with stairs on either side. The exterior combines pinned rubble with ashlar detailing and tall round-headed windows. The west gable carries a tall ashlar bellcote, while the Gothic porch between church and hall features a pointed-arch doorway with weathered figures and a Celtic cross above. The hall’s south gable displays an ornate ashlar doorway with Ionic columns and intersecting stone tracery.