It is generally assumed that much of Scotland’s mediaeval stained glass was destroyed at the Reformation, but this is only partially true. The centuries,long struggles between Scotland and England had already seen the destruction of much glass from earlier times, and while figurative glass was anathema to the Reformers, practical considerations ruled and the Lords of the Congregation specifically forbade the destruction of ‘glessin wark’.

While the actions of iconoclasts no doubt put paid to the most figurative glass, the subsequent erosion of the bulk of Scotland’s stained glass heritage was largely due to the loss of skills with the dispersal of the monastic communities who had both created and maintained it. It was not until the Gothic Revival in nineteenth century architecture that Scotland re,acquired some of the traditional skills in glass making, painting and staining.

Pioneering firms like those of James Ballantine of Edinburgh and William Meikle of Glasgow, both represented by late windows in Saint John’s Kirk, obtained their earliest commissions from the Episcopalian churches in Scotland and England. It was not until 1856 when the architects of Scotland were insulted by attacks on native glass designers and the award of the prestigious commission to reglaze Glasgow Cathedral to the Royal Bavarian Glassworks at Munich that the waning resistance to stained glass was overcome. James Ballantine, publicly rejected for the Glasgow commission in spite of carrying out A W N Pugin’s prestigious scheme for the House of Lords, was the first beneficiary of this injured national pride and his scheme for Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh (1856,57) ushered in a renaissance of Scottish stained glass.