Low-pitched roofs

A low pitched roof has a little pitch or slope in the angle of the roof.

Drumry St Mary's Parish Church, Glasgow,  A good example of a building with a low-pitched roof.

 Concealed flat and low-pitched roofs 

	The walls of the church extend to hide either a flat or low-pitched roof.	St Bride's Roman Catholic Church, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, a building with a concealed flat roof.

Deep timber or copper-faced fascias

A roof that is clad in a thick layer of timber or copper as opposed to slates, pan-tiles or shingles.

St Mungo's Parish Church, Cumbernauld.  There is a deep copper-clad fascia on the link block on the left. The church roof is also clad in copper.

Continuous eaves glazing 

This style of glazing was fashionable in the 50s and 60s. Sometimes it was applied to flat-roofed blocks, but it was also used in other types of building, for instance St Mungo's, Cumbernauld (above), and St. Mary Magdalene's in Edinburgh.

St Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic Church, Bingham, Edinburgh, Showing eaves glazing.

Set-back plinths

It is quite common in post-War churches to have the body of the church set on a plinth. Often the plinth is of exposed brickwork, the upper part of the walls being rendered. Sometimes, as seen below, the upper part of the building projects significantly over the plinth.

Craigsbank Parish Church, Corstorphine, Edinburgh

 Monitor roof-lights 

Rooflights with vertical glazing, projecting above flat or inclined roofs, seem to have been introduced into Scotland by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia in their St Paul's' Roman Catholic Church, Glenrothes. The purpose of such features is to shed light from above on to particular parts of interiors, for instance on chancels.

St Gregory's Roman Catholic Church, Wyndford, Glasgow,  with a large rooflight, designed for the same purpose as the Glenrothes one.  Note also the eaves glazing strip.

 Monopitch roofs

 

A monopitch roof is, as the name suggests, a roof with a single slope, as opposed to the more usual two (gabled) or four (piended) slopes. Such roofs were popular in the 1950s and 60s for domestic buildings, and were also used in several contemporary churches.

St Andrew's Roman Catholic Church, Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire,  Showing two monopitch roofs abutting each other.

Curved roofs

An early example of a curved roof can be found at Roslin Chapel, but this appears to be unintentional; there is every reason to believe that the currently-exposed surface of the vault was intended to be protected by a pitched roof, as was normal in mediaeval and early modern vaulted buildings. The intentional construction of churches with curved roofs (apart from domes, which are of great antiquity) is in Scotland a war-time and post-War phenomenon. Convex curves are to be found in the Nissen-hut-based Italian Chapel in Orkney, and in two Roman Catholic churches, in Edinburgh and Kilmarnock. The most extreme examples of the type are the 'parabolic-hyperbolic' roof of Hamilton Bardrainney Church in Port Glasgow, and three Roman Catholic churches, in Penicuik, Renfrew and Johnstone. The two last-named have been replaced, after the Johnstone one's roof failed in a storm.

The Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Penicuik. Midlothian

A-frame buildings

  

One approach to the construction of framed buildings was to make the roof the building, by carrying it down almost to ground level. As in the case of curved roofs, such buildings were never common. The largest, a Roman Catholic church in Maryhill, Glasgow, has been demolished, but three survive, in Paisley, East Kilbride and Rosyth.

Rosyth Methodist Church, Fife