Roman Catholic Church of The Incarnation, Tombae

The Roman Catholic Church of the Incarnation stands in Tombae, Moray, set back from the main road in a quiet corner of Banffshire. Built between 1827 and 1829, it replaced an earlier mass house at Kinakyle that was damaged in floods. John Gall, an Aberdeen cabinet maker and architect, began the work before handing it to James Kyle, the bishop of Aberdeen, who completed the interior in the 1840s. Walter Lovi, a local priest and architect, assisted with the remodelling. The church was once a Category A listed building, recognised for its Gothic Revival style and fine granite ashlar frontage. The church is notable for its unusual west-facing entrance, set away from the road behind a pointed arch window with intersecting tracery. Inside, rib-vaulted ceilings rest on timber-panelled cast iron columns, and a Conacher pipe organ once filled the gallery before being moved to Lebanon. The churchyard holds the vault of George Smith, founder of the Glenlivet distillery, who died in 1871. The building’s pink granite and Celtic cross on the gable mark it as a fine example of early 19th-century Catholic church architecture in Scotland. Though closed since 2012 and now on the Buildings at Risk Register, the church still shows its Gothic details: latticed windows, stone crosses, and exposed rubble masonry where the harling has fallen away. The roof leaks, slates have slipped, and gutters need repair, yet the structure remains standing. Its east gable faces the road, its west front turned inward, giving it an unexpected presence in the landscape. The organ’s removal leaves an empty gallery, but the vaulted interior and granite walls remain.