Geograph - photograph every grid square

See NS3477 : Cardross Old Parish Church for a wider view, on a day with better lighting. Click on the end-note title for other pictures of the church and its churchyard.

As is summarised in the end-note, the parish church for Cardross had been, until 1643, St Serf's (NS3975 : The ruins of St Serf's Church), which is in Levengrove Park, now part of the town of Dumbarton. However, with the redrawing of parish boundaries, it became desirable to have the parish church in a more central location. The site chosen was the one shown in the present photograph. The first church built here dated from 1643-44. In 1826-27, it was replaced by another church (whose architect was James Dempster) on the same site. The picture shows that church, which is now disused.

It fell into disuse after sustaining bomb damage during the Cardross Blitz of 1941. The nearby former Free Church on the corner of Station Road and Church Avenue became the new parish church: NS3477 : Cardross Parish Church.

A small stone panel is visible on the walled-up doorway (NS3477 : Doorway of old parish church); it bears an inscription: "To the glory of God the tower of this Church was restored as a witness to past faith and future hope / Summer 1999 / 'Look Forward in Faith'".

On each side of the doorway, at about the same level as the panel with the inscription, darker details are visible; these are two carved stone heads: see NS3477 : Cardross Old Parish Church - stone head (on the left) and NS3477 : Cardross Old Parish Church - stone head (on the right).

The Canmore link in the end-note refers to "two identical mausoleum enclosures, castellated and gunlooped, on the western margin of the burial plot"; these are the NS3477 : Edmonstone Burial Ground and the NS3477 : Auchenfroe Family Burial Ground. For views of other memorials in the churchyard, click on the end-note title.