The High Altar


Originally Herbert Gribble's design for the High Altar included a great baldachino or ciborium.  The High Altar as it is today is however still very impressive standing, as it does, in a sanctuary which is some 70 feet deep. It is ordered for the solemn celebration of the Church's liturgy and has escaped the ravages of some of the re-ordering schemes which followed Vatican II.

The carved choir stalls are inlaid with ivory and together with the elaborately inlaid wooden floor were the gift of Ann, Duchess of Argyll to the first church, completed in 1854. There are two seven-branched candlesticks in the sanctuary. They are modelled on those in the Temple of Jerusalem as pictured on the Arch of Titus. Standing on marble plinths, they were the gift of the Marquis of Bute.