Doors Open Day® visitor sites SKELMORIE John Knox Church W T Spier’s Old School Grounds W E G 10 High Street On B706 Beith to Dunlop road – parking in grounds, enter by Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post Museum G second entrance in Barmill Road south east from junction with A737 Beith Opened 1841, this active evangelical church has a long history. In the small hall, Access by climbing down a 15ft vertical steel ladder. Warm clothing and Bypass view the Cradle Roll going back several decades. Sunday Service 11.15 a.m. Open Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA3 5BZ sensible shoes required. The first fully restored monitoring post (built 1965) in Site of locally endowed advanced school designed by James Sellars, opened Scotland following the 1991 stand-down of the ROC facilities that would have 1888 and demolished in 1984. The landscaped grounds were laid out by the reported nuclear explosion and fall-out in the Firth of Clyde. Tour lasting an hour Earl of Eglinton’s head gardener. Since 2010, grounds sensitively restored by restricted to six adults and teenagers. Friends of Spiers/Spiers Trust/North Ayrshire Council partnership. The restored GALSTON Open Sunday. Pre-booking essential. Tel: 07513 504115 to reserve a place. Coronation garden dating from 1953 was formally reopened in 2013. Wide range of animal and plant species, including a specimen Dawn Redwood from Loudoun Kirk (HLF) W E G ©McAteer China planted in 1953. The Ballochmyle red sandstone entrance gates and walls On side road off A719, opposite Loudoun Castle Park entrance on Barrmill Road continue to be listed. Guided walk from Spier’s Information LARGS Recently restored 12th century Kirk. Partially restored by 3rd Marquess of Bute Panel 12.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. Exhibition of photographs taken in former in 1898. Covenanters’ graves, including Thomas Fleming, ancestor to Sir school and in restored grounds. Largs M useum W E G A Alexander Fleming. The memorial to the tragic Lady Flora Hastings is prominent SANQUHAR Open Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Kirkgate House, Manse Court, off Main Street in the Kirkyard. Preservation work supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Crawick Multiverse Largs Museum presents a fine collection of domestic artefacts, seaside Historic Scotland and work with the Carved Stones of Scotland Association. souvenirs, and photographs of old Largs and Australian connections; and Open Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA4 8PF archival material for researchers. Exhibition: Photographs and artefacts to BARRMILL commemorate 175th anniversary of Largs Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Galston Parish Church W ground floor only R E M T Open Saturday and Sunday 2 – 5 p.m. KA30 8AW Barrmill Park and Gardens W R E G A T In town centre Vale Grove and Vale View (Beechgrove) Gardens John Brash, 1809. Rectangular, with pedimented gable above its three front Skelmorlie Aisle G created by the Barrmill Conservation Group, the Barrmill & District Community doors, and round-headed windows. Vaulted chancel, 1912. U-shaped gallery, Within Auld Kirkyard, off Main Street, near Museum Association and other volunteers, assisted by NAC Ranger Service. Features also 3-manual organ by James Binns of Leeds, 1913. Stained glass by Oscar Paterson. 1636 Renaissance-style canopied tomb within mausoleum to Montgomerie include restored Dead Man’s Planting site of a 19th century cholera pit, wish Memorial to Rev Dr Robert Stirling, Minister 1824-78 during cholera epidemic family. Splendid painted barrel-vaulted timber ceiling. Owned by Historic trees, wishing wells and doors to Elfhame. Local History exhibition, general and inventor of the Stirling Engine. Memorial, ruined gravestone and resting Scotland. Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane Mausoleum in Kirkyard. information stalls and Balloon Race – small charge and prize for greatest place of Rev George Smith, Minister 1778-1823 and who was the great Open Saturday and Sunday 2 – 5 p.m. KA30 8AW distance travelled. Guided walks throughout each day. grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson and whose name crops up in three Open Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA15 1HW poems by Robert Burns. Covenanters’ Corner. Floral displays. Clark Memorial Church W M G A T Stirling Exhibition: The Inventor’s Ministry, Work, Legacy and Family plus NASA. Service 11 a.m. Songs of Praise. Bath Street Open Sunday 1 – 4 p.m.; Messy Church event Saturday 3.30 – 5.30 p.m. in T G Abercrombie, 1890-92. Impressive Early Gothic decorated style in red DALRY Hogg Hall. KA4 8AL sandstone. Rich interior with hammerbeam roof, organ by Willis, stained glass by C W Whall, Stephen Adam and Meikle & Sons. Service 10 a.m. St Margaret’s Parish Church W E T Barr Castle RE G A T Open Sunday 12 noon – 4 p.m. KA30 8BL The Cross In town centre A church has been on this site since c.1604. Present building by David Thomson An old Norman keep built by the Lockhart family after an invasion of NEWMILNS St John’s Parish Church WG A T 1873, repaired after fire of 1951 destroyed roof and chancel. Stained glass by Anglo-Norman people in the 12th and 13th centuries. George Wishart 1545 and Bath Street Owl Cote Guthrie & Wells, Hemony bell c.1604, organ by Blackett & Howden rebuilt 1952 John knox 1556, the Scottish reformers, both preached here as the church doors Congregation dates from the Disruption of 1843. Building reconstructed late by Hill Norman & Beard. Service 10.30 a.m. were locked against them. Home of Lodge St Peter 331 for over a hundred 19th century in French Romanesque style by Archibald J Grahame, his only Open Sunday 12 noon – 4 p.m. KA24 5AE years. Community garden. Social Club will be showing audio visual display for monument, recently renovated. Fine stained glass by Douglas Strachan. wheelchair users. Service 10 a.m. Open Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA4 8HU Open Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA30 8BH KILWINNING NEWMILNS Kilwinning Old Parish Church W T FAIRLIE Main Street The Owl Cote WE G John Swan c. 1774. Simple T-plan. Attractive Eglinton Loft supported on Middlefield Farm, near Darvel TV mast public road Fairlie Parish Church W R T Corinthian columns. Stained glass by W & J J Kier, Stephen Adam, Abbey Studio, Traditional style round tower built 2008/10 to provide nest site for wild barn Built as a Chapel of Ease in 1834, and extended in 1883 by J J Sax Shaw and Paul Lucky. Foster & Andrew organ 1887. Wall tapestry and 800th owls. Inner core re-uses recycled bricks from former lace factory. Recording on Stephenson. Superb windows by Alfred and Gordon Webster, J H Dearle, Morris, anniversary window. Cole Hamilton screen. Service 10.30 a.m. display shows 2016 barn owl activities. Displays of Industrial Heritage includes Powell and Moira Malcolm of Prestwick. Pulpit by Bennet exhibited in 1888 Open Sunday 2 – 4 p.m. KA13 6AQ old bottles, Ayrshire bricks, local archaeology, geology and ecology. Clay Empire Exhibition. Weather vane is a model of Fife’s yacht design Latifa. Fairlie building blocks from local Victorian water culvert. Narrow approach roads. Stone, early medieval sculptured stone, 1578 ‘Breeches’ Bible, HMS Kingfisher Kilwinning Abbey Tower Heritage Centre W E G Open Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA16 9LS memorial lost off Fairlie 1944. Kilwinning Town Centre Open Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA29 0AD Designed by David Hamilton, completed 1816, and built on the foundations of DARVEL the NW tower of the 12th century Tironensian Abbey. Staffed by volunteers from Kilwinning Heritage. Displays on the Abbey, Robert Service ‘The Bard of Private Telephone Museum WR E G T PORTENCROS S the Yukon’, the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers and the papingo 1 Burn Road, near the Turf Hotel competition dating from 1483, matchstick models and local history. Working Private museum containing unique display of telephone memorabilia dating clock mechanism 1816 by James Blair and two large bells on display. Guided Portencross Castle E A from early 1900s to the present. Housed within old bakehouse dating from tours up 143 steps to the roof for the best views of Ayrshire. AYR Built by Robert Boyd c.1360, and extended to form a tower with 1767, adjacent to the Matthew Burn Green, only remaining public green Open Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA13 6EG Auld Kirk of Ayr detail of in Darvel. five-storey wing. Robert II frequent visitor, signed charters here. Semi-ruinous, stained glass window but major conservation project 2010 allows access to the interior, including Open Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA17 0AJ Great Hall with original vaulted ceiling and to the roof for spectacular views. Mansefield Trinity Church WRG A T Regret wheelchair access limited to ground floor cellar. West Doura Way, Stevenson Road KILMARNOCK Open Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. KA23 9QA The first Church of Scotland church built in the new millennium and dedicated in March 2001. Designed by James F Stephen, the building has a distinctive Kilmarnock Fire & Rescue Station W E G T round design, which creates a light and airy atmosphere. Floor-to-ceiling Campbell Street, Riccarton ARDROSSAN windows allow the church to be flooded with sunlight during services throughout the year. The building is multi-purpose and reflects current Fully operational with modern fire appliances, Ariel Rescue Platform and Major thinking, being open and accessible. Incident Unit. Up to date training facilities and community safety education St Andrew’s Scottish Episcopal Church R Saturday WE T Open Saturday 10 a.m.