Round Church, Main Street, Bowmore, Isle Of Islay
Image details
Contributor:
QEDimages / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
C5HYN8File size:
36.4 MB (1.1 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
4368 x 2912 px | 37 x 24.7 cm | 14.6 x 9.7 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
2 July 2011Location:
Round Church, Main Street, Bowmore, Isle Of IslayMore information:
Construction Building of the Round Church commenced in 1767 and the Church was completed and opened for worship in 1769. The building contractor was Thomas Spalding, brought from the mainland by Daniel Campbell The Younger for the specific purpose of building the Church. The two-storeyed circular body of the Round Church has an outside diameter of 60 ft (18.29 metres). The walls of the Church are 2 ft 9 ins (0.84 m) thick. The main central pillar, which is 19 ins (0.48 m) in diameter at the base, is of timber, possibly hemlock oak, harled and plastered. The base has been scorched (to seal the wood against decay) and rounded, to fit a saucer-shaped recess in the supporting sandstone slab. This slab, supported in turn by a stone base, is only four inches below the actual flooring of the Church and has a drain hole to prevent water collecting and rotting the base of the pillar. The squared top of the pillar, above the coved ceiling, supports a radial king-post roof truss, into which eight major beams are jointed, which, in turn, are tenoned into the principal rafters at their outer ends. Outside, above the main entrance door, on a sandstone tablet set into the face of the square tower, there is the following Latin inscription:- IN PIETATIS STUDIUM : VERI HONESTIQUE CULTUM : HOC TEMPLUM : DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO SACRUM : DANIEL CAMPBELLUS : HUIUS INSULAE DOMINUS : ANNO MILLESIMO : SEPTINGENTESIMO SEXAGESIMO SEPTIMO : PROPRIIS SUIS SUMPTIBUS POSUIT which may be translated:- With pious intent, and to promote truth and honour, Daniel Campbell, lord of this island, built at his own expense in the year 1767, this church dedicated to the supreme God. The gallery of the Church, which is ‘U’ shaped in plan, was added c1830, and is supported by eight plastered (pitch pine) plain timber columns, of a simplified Tuscan order.