Church Overview

This handsome neo-Romanesque church, with its landmark, four stage, 100ft tower and belfry at its south west corner, was designed and built 1907-08, to replace a church of 1744, by the celebrated Scottish architect Peter MacGregor Chalmers. It consists of an impressive nave, lit by a clerestory above and housing a handsome arcade of carved stone pillars and arches, with a projecting north and south aisle on either side. Chalmers provided a chancel to house its organ and a choir, within the chancel arch, that he was furnished with oak stalls, with a richly carved pulpit to the side of the arch.

The chancel displays an exquisitely carved marble and alabaster reredos of the Last Supper, gifted in 1929 by the Rev DD Rees. The parish minister had obtained royal permission to have a copy made of the reredos of St Mildred’s Church in Whippingham. The original artwork had been gifted by Edward VII and the Royal Family to the Isle of Wight church in memory of his mother Queen Victoria, who regularly worshipped there as it was very near her secluded island retreat, Osborne House.

The building is also blessed with some absolutely incredible stained glass, including a large window depicting the Ascending Christ as King, the Garden of Gethsemane and St Peter and St Paul, by Percy Bacon & Bros from 1908, no less than 16 windows, relating various scenes from the Life of Christ by William Wilson, installed 1947-48, and two windows by Gordon Webster, depicting ‘Praise the Lord” and ‘I was in Prison’ from 1976. A magnificent three manual Hildson & Co pipe organ was installed in 1912 and entirely rebuilt by Rushworth & Dreaper in 1966. You can view this remarkable collection of windows on a video created by one of the founding members of the Inverclyde Church Recorders here.

A hand-crafted model of a Spanish frigate called the “San Josef” of 1804, created by sailor William Dunlop, also hung prominently on display in the church, having been relocated to St Cuthbert’s from the previous parish church when it was closed. The San Josef had been captured in fierce naval battle in 1797 by the British Navy and Dunlop had built and gifted the model to his parish church on his return as a thanksgiving for his surviving the Napoleonic Wars, after a cannonball had very narrowly missed his hammock while he was sleeping!

Having opened as the Parish Church of Ardrossan, it adopted the name of St Cuthbert’s Parish Church in 1929, following the union of the Church of Scotland the United Free Church of Scotland, to help differentiate it from surrounding church buildings. Following a merger in 1955, its congregation converted the nearby North Church building into its halls in 1964-65. A merger with South Beach Church followed in 1970 and that building was sold to a Baptist congregation. The old North Church was then demolished and a new purpose-built hall built by architect Andrew Watson of Robert Rennie & Watson.

In May 2024, after a protracted period of disagreement, the congregation of St Cuthbert’s was merged in union with the congregations of Saltcoats North Church (closed in in November 2023) and Park Church in Ardrossan, to form a new congregation to be called Ardrossan Parish Church. Saltcoats St Cuthbert’s was then formally closed on 30 June 2024, during a nationwide programme of rationalisation of its property portfolio by the denomination and its presbyteries and the our volunteer Inverclyde Church Recorders visited the church to document its contents in August 2024.  As of July 2026, St Cuthbert’s has not yet been marketed for sale, but Saltcoats North was eventually sold in May 2026.

CHURCH closed in June 2024

Disclaimer

The information about churches in Scotland’s Churches Scheme has been provided by the congregations or taken from the Historic Scotland list and published sources, in particular, the Buildings of Scotland volumes and the RIAS Illustrated Architectural Guides. To contact this specific church please complete the Contact this Church form above. The information is not authoritative; please contact Scotland’s Churches Trust to let us know of any errors or omissions.