The term ‘vernacular‘ is used here to describe buildings with little or no ornament, or architectural pretension. Such buildings were usually constructed by local masons and wrights (carpenters). They were usually on rectangular or T-plans, with gabled or piended roofs, and usually had belfries, if built for the Church of Scotland. Secession churches did not have belfries. 17th and early 18th century churches of this type usually had low walls, steeply-pitched roofs, and small rectangular windows. Later 18th century buildings often had round-headed windows, and in the early 19th century plain pointed windows made an appearance. Early vernacular churches were often, it appears, thatched, but the greater availability of slate during the 18th century resulted in this roofing material coming into general use. [Most gabled churches in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries had gables standing above the roof-line to form exposed skews. The junction between the roof-covering and the gable could be protected by a fillet of mortar, or by making a lead channel (water gate) along the junction]. In the middle of the 18th century piended roofs, and for larger spans platform roofs, were introduced, but they were never as common as gabled roofs.
