West Kilbride - Landmarks

Landmarks

St. Andrew's church, formerly known as St. Brides, belongs to the Church of Scotland. In addition to being a church, it has several large function rooms which are used by local groups. It has a large rose stained glass window and a tall, gothic bell tower.

Overton Church, also belonging to the Church of Scotland, is located at the top of Ritchie Street. It is a red sandstone building with a working bell tower. Overton Church website

St. Bride's is a small Roman Catholic chapel, on the north side of Hunterston Road, with a large garden behind it.

The Barony (or Barony Church), a large 19th-century grey sandstone building, is situated just across the main street from St. Andrew's. This building no longer functions as a church; however, it remains in public hands, as the new £1.7m Craft Exhibition Centre operated by Craft Town Scotland (a project of the West Kilbride Community Initiative Limited). Unfortunately, its 19th-century stained-glass windows were illegally removed by its previous owner, despite the Barony's listed building status. Attempts to trace the windows were unsuccessful and the previous owner was successfully prosecuted.

One of the oldest houses in West Kilbride is Kirktonhall, which originally dates back to 1660, although the house was partially rebuilt and extended in 1791 and 1868. The house was birthplace to mathematician Robert Simson, born 14 October 1687. A large monument to Simson stands in West Kilbride's cemetery. Kirktonhall was formally used as administrative offices by North Ayrshire Council but now remains boarded up.

The West Kilbride Institute and Public Hall, opened in 1900, has been home to the West Kilbride Horticultural Society's flower shows from the same year. The building currently has a number of other uses, including a permanent local history museum, located on the first floor of the hall. The local library was housed here until 1996 when a dedicated home was built (see below). Since the late 1990s the Hall has been run by a dedicated Management Group as part of the highly successful West Kilbride Community Initiative. It is hoped that during 2012 with the full support of the Initiative and local Council the Hall will proceed to separate charitable status as a SCIO.

The War Memorial, originally built in 1921, did not list the names of the dead. This deficiency was remedied on 3 June 2001 (the Sunday nearest D-Day), when the memorial was re-dedicated with four new granite stones listing the names.

Kirktonhall Glen is a woodland walkway leading from West Kilbride to Seamill, gifted to West Kilbride in 1924 by Robert Barr. Through it flows the Kilbride Burn which enters the Firth of Clyde at Seamill.