Beith High Church, Kirk Road, Beith

Heritage listing

Category B Date Added 14/04/1971 Local Authority North Ayrshire Planning Authority North Ayrshire Parish Beith NGR NS 34940 53815 Coordinates 234940, 653815 — John Connell and William Harvie, masons,1807-1810, with additions and alterations 1885; restorations 1985-1993. Gothic church with tall 5-stage square clock tower to N; later wide gabled entrance front of 1885 to S (forming T-plan) with central boarded door under ogival head, flanking buttresses linked by blind arcade above; blind quatrefoil oculus; E and W gabled elevations with 3 bays; buttressed bay to each re-entrant angle at S. All windows 2 or 3 lights with geometric tracery. Battlemented parapets and gables. Tower with paired, louvred belfry openings in 5th stage, panelled gable finials above linked by lattice parapet. Sandstone rubble to earlier phase with raised and droved margins; squared and snecked sandstone to later phase with ashlar dressings. Gables with distinctive cross finials. Grey slates; cast-iron rainwater goods. N ELEVATION: 3 bays, central tower with flanking recessed bays; traceried windows to each bay. Single storey vestibule addition in re-entrant angle to L. INTERIOR: good scheme in place with notable stained glass. Panelled gallery to 3 sides supported on cast-iron columns; decorative panel set in Giffen gallery dated 1596 with armorial of Robert Montgomerie and his wife Jean Campbell. Flat, timber boarded and ribbed ceiling. Various memorials including 1st and 2nd World War memorials. Mid 20th century stained glass by Gordon MacWhirter Webster. Bog oak chancel furniture of 1896. Marble and onyx baptismal font, 1896. Organ by Harrison and Harrison in Gothic case by John Pollock of Victoria Works, Beith, 1885. Lectern by John McKechnie of Beithcraft, 1928. BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.