The Broughty Ferry church spire destroyed by lightning at the end of May is to be brought down by the end of the week.
After weeks of assessment by experts and talks with insurers, church elders at St Stephen’s and West Church have confirmed the project to replace the damaged section is going ahead.
The spire will be pulled apart piece by piece by demolition experts using the scaffolding that surrounds the church.
The hole left behind will then be “capped” and made watertight, allowing the kirk to be used.
Once that phase is complete, the replacement spire will be constructed at ground level later this year.
It has not been confirmed if any of the original timber, which is around 150 years old, will be in good enough condition to be salvaged and reused.
Session Clerk the Rev John Grieve said good progress had been made on the plans within the last few weeks and confirmed the congregation should be allowed back into the building by the end of the month.
He said, “I’m not sure exactly how it is going to be done, but I believe it will be rebuilt at ground level.
“At this stage we still don’t know the full assessment of the project and we are still working on the final cost.
“We will continue to use the church hall until the end of the month.
The presbytery has hired Dundee Plant to complete the work, but could not reveal the final cost of the dismantling and reconstruction procedure.
St Stephen’s and West interim moderator, the Rev Jim Roy, who has been preaching at the church for 19 months, was initially surprised the building withstood the lightning.FrustratingLast night he admitted the six-week wait for action has proved “frustrating.”
“Because it is an A-listed building the local authority and Historic Scotland will have had to be consulted,” he said.
“It has all been quite frustrating and we had hoped to have an answer before now.”
The church which occupies a corner site on Westfield Road and Dundee Road was struck directly by lightning during a thunderstorm on May 27 at around 4.20pm.
Members of the church sub-committee had been at a meeting inside the building just half an hour before the strike.
The spire was almost completely destroyed with roof tiles, timber and masonry all heavily damaged in addition to the wider roof space and stained-glass panels.