Prince Charles makes 'substantial' donation to save medieval church Reverend Jim Gibson, the parish minister, who also serves as chaplain to the Queen in Scotland said Prince Charles's donation had been a significant boost to the fund. He added: "This is a very special church and what we want to do is save this building given its historic and architectural value and the engineers and the architects want this done as quickly as possible." The church was St Brides, a Catholic church since the sixth century until the Reformation and it served a relatively short spell as an Episcopalian place of worship before becoming Bothwell Parish Church in the early-1600s. The original foundations of Scotland's oldest collegiate church go deep under today's structure but the building has been rebuilt over time, particularly after the tower crashed through the roof - twice. A Clarence House spokesman said: "The Prince of Wales has given his support to a number of church restoration projects across the country." The fundraising campaign is being supported by Archbishop Tartaglia, of the Diocese of Glasgow; The Rt Rev Dr Gregor Duncan, the Episcopalian bishop of Glasgow and Galloway and The Very Revd Professor Iain Richard Torrance, Dean of the Chapel Royal. Archbishop Tartaglia said: "I am delighted to support the efforts being made to preserve Bothwell Parish Church which has a long and distinguished tradition dating back long before the reformation. Indeed it was the Pope who granted it special status back in the 14th century as a collegiate church. Though the upheavals of the reformation brought profound distress and pain, ours is a more ecumenical age and so I am comforted to see a building which has had such a fascinating and colourful history continue to serve as a place of Christian worship on a site which has been hallowed since the sixth century. Prince Charles has made several donations to church restoration projects in the past. In 2011 he became a patron of a Norfolk church's fundraising appeal when he also made an undisclosed donation to the project at St Peter and Paul's Church in Walpole St Peter. In 2004 he also made a "generous" donation to a £500,000 appeal to save the Strawberry Hill Gothic Church in Shobdon, near Leominster, Herefordshire, from deteriorating. Through his Prince's Charities Foundation, he famously ploughed £20 million into Dumfries House to save the stately home for the nation. The funding mean that the mansion house completed by the Scots-born Adam brothers in 1759, and it original collection of Chippendale furniture, was saved and opened to the public.