The tragedy of Scotland’s church sell-off

‘We are not a heritage society,’ insisted the Rev David Cameron, Convener of the Assembly Trustees of the Church of Scotland. Speaking to the BBC in January, Mr Cameron claimed the Church has a ‘surplus of buildings and large property’, and that there is a need ‘to address our estate’.

A church or kirk is usually the most historically important building in any given town or village

In other words, the Church of Scotland is selling off its churches. Not just one or two here or there, but a lot, and for cut-price rates. Of course, the Church insists that the move is ‘painful but essential’, aping the language of a corporate multinational’s HR department. Yet the sheer scale and decisiveness of the move belie the patronising smiles of the Church hierarchy.

Anywhere between 20 and 30 per cent of parish churches – around 400 – are being put on the market. In deciding what to sell off, the Church has one eye on the bottom line. Since many of Scotland’s oldest and most beautiful churches require the highest maintenance costs, that puts them at risk.

Right now, in Aberdeen, just £390,000 could buy you St Mark’s, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie’s huge neoclassical church in the city centre. For a famously austere religious denomination, the church verges on camp: it has fine stained glass, an impressive organ, a large mezzanine, Corinthian pillars and a dome modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral.

If you’re in the market for something a little cosier, £110,000 gets you the 18th-century Kirkpatrick Juxta Parish Church. Beautifully set against the Lowther Hills, this little whitewashed brick church with Celtic cross windows currently serves the village of Beattock. But that’s about to change. Like most of the churches facing the chop, if bought, it will probably become just another home.

For the most part, news of a national sell-off has been met with a muted fatalism.