St Mary's Collegiate Church, Haddington

The Collegiate Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Church of Scotland parish church in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland.

Building work on the church was started in 1380, and further building and rebuilding has taken place up to the present day. It is the longest church in Scotland, at 206 feet (62.8 metres) from east to west, and is in the early Gothic style.

The cruciform church is located in a large open churchyard, at some distance from the town centre. The church is built on a scale becoming of a cathedral. It is of a uniform and consistent design, that suggests a clear adherence to the original plans. Having been desecrated during the sixteenth century, the nave of the church and the tower were repaired for use by the congregation, this part being subject to various restorations in subsequent centuries. A comprehensive renovation of the whole church was carried out in the 1970s.

The choir is aisled and is made up of four bays, intersected by buttresses with a mixture of gabled and pinnacled terminals. The windows between have simple curvilinear tracery dividing two main lights. The cornice below the eaves has foliate carving. The clerestory is unbuttressed and has double-lighted windows beneath two mouchettes. The window at the east end of the choir was built in 1877, and consists of four lights with contemporary tracery. One of the finials shows an angel playing the bagpipe. On the north side of the choir there is a medieval sacristy, which is now an ecumenical chapel and mausoleum of the Maitland family dedicated to the Three Kings.

The transepts are aisleless, with windows at the gables and to the west, the gable windows are triple lighted with mouchettes above. The south transept contains the Lauderdale Aisle, a small Scottish Episcopal chapel that commemorates John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane and the remainder of the Maitland family. There is a stair turret in the west angle of the south transept which gives access to the tower. The tower is cubic in form and has triple lancet windows on each elevation. There are single figure niches on either side of the openings. The wall heads terminate in a decorative cornice with gargoyles. The corbelling at this level suggests that there were plans to erect a crown spire similar to that of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh and St. Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow. It is not known whether or not this decorative structure was ever built.

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