Mary Isobel Wood: Lismore’s stained glass windows

by Pauline Dowling | 1 Sep 2025 | Blog, Church, History

On Saturday 23 September 2025 Karen Livingstone met with members of Kilmoluag Liosmor (Lismore Church Futures Group) and others to discuss the important stained glass windows in Lismore Parish Church. She was introduced by her brother Ron Livingstone who is the owner of Point House.

Karen is recognised as an international expert on the Arts and Crafts design movement and in particular women’s roles and contributions as set out in her recent book “Women pioneers of the Arts and Crafts movement”

Mary Isobel Wood’s stained glass Lismore church

In an informative talk she told us that the stained glass windows on the east gallery of the church were designed by Mary Isobel Wood of Edinburgh in 1926. In her book Karen writes: “This is a powerful window without being overpowering. Strong figure drawing and a palette of quiet controlled colour. Moluag with staff and parchment – Columba with his doves fluttering – a coracle with sails. The sense of a Celtic twilight & a strange timeless quality, in keeping with this ancient parish church.” (https://www.visitstainedglass.uk/…/lismore-parish…)

Mary Isobel Wood was a 20th century artist and a prominent member of the Arts and Craft design movement primarily known for her many stained glass windows in Scotland, created between 1920 and 1970, but she also worked in other mediums, such as wood block prints, and other countries. Born in Edinburgh in 1886, the second child of John Philp Wood and Margaret Ellinor Tennent, she studied at Edinburgh College of Art, where she subsequently taught stained glass in the 1920s. She exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on a number of occasions, contributed to the 1938 Empire Exhibition, and was Herald Painter to the Lyon Court. Her last known window was in 1969 however she continued creating into the 1970s from her studio in William Street Lane, Edinburgh.

The church also includes two later windows by Roland Mitton, who was Mary Isobel Wood’s post graduate apprentice. The windows are signed and dated at the bottom right.

Roland Mitton' stained glass window 1987

Roland Mitton’ stained glass window – The sower and the seed 1996

Roland Mitton's stained glass window 1987

Roland Mitton’s Follow me stained glass window 1987

Karen Livingstone’s knowledge of the movement was seen when she curated a major Arts and Crafts exhibition when she was at the Victoria and Albert museum in London (a V&A exhibition which was also taken to Japan and America). She was subsequently a director at the Science Museum, and is now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge as its first Deputy Director for Masterplan, Exhibitions and Major Display Projects.

It was particularly relevant to discover such treasures in the parish church as it is in the process of being disposed of in some way and with a strong group working hard to retain it for the community.

The Mary Isobel Wood window is dedicated to the Gregorsen family and dated March 1926

Mary Isobel Wood’s stained glass dedication

Karen Livingstone’s talk on Mary Isobel Wood’s stained glass 23.08.25

Draped below the lectern is the pulpit fall by Elizabeth Odling also firmly in the arts and crafts tradition, the story of which is told elsewhere.