Rectory

St Mary The Virgin Episcopal Church is a church complex built between 1982 and 1984 to designs by Frank Burnet, Bell and Partners. It is located on a rocky outcrop within a residential area of Port Glasgow, and includes an adjoining, asymmetrical arrangement of church hall, offices, and rectory, all constructed from pale orange brick, forming a Z-plan.

The church hall and offices are situated to the north of the main church building, while the rectory adjoins the complex to the northwest, arranged around a recessed courtyard.

The church's distinctive A-frame roof structure rises to a gabled peak on the east elevation. A apsidal sanctuary projects to the east, featuring a lean-to roof light, and a smaller, lower baptistry projects to the west. The bronze-coloured, standing seam roofing panels were replaced with a grey membrane covering in 2021; the rectory retains its original bronze roof panelling (as of 2024).

Inside the church and church halls (viewed in 2019), dark stained woodwork is a prominent feature, including a steam moulded and glued, laminated timber frame roof structure that resembles the hull of an upturned boat. A glazed waffle-grid screen separates a north-side chapel. Exposed, reconstituted stone block walls and dark timber parquet floors are also present. The vestibule has a timber-panelled ceiling and louvred windows.

Several features were salvaged from the earlier Episcopal Church of St Mary the Virgin, which was located near Newark Castle and demolished in 1977 as part of a road development. These include a carved altar, a carved font, a stone dated 1856, an eagle lectern, and carved timber pews. Stained-glass windows from the earlier church have been incorporated into later 20th-century surrounds. The names of those who died in the two World Wars are inscribed on the front of the choir stalls. A small side chapel, the Epiphany Chapel, to the north contains stained glass depicting the Three Kings and an icon of the Virgin and Child.

At the south entrance to the church, from Bardrainney Avenue, are plain brick gatepiers and a brick boundary wall topped with stone coping.

The church opened in 1984, replacing the earlier building near Newark Castle. Strathclyde Regional Council funded the new church, with the condition that stained-glass windows and other fittings from the old church be incorporated. The metal roof covering was replaced with a grey plastic membrane in 2021, along with the altar roof light. The church complex has otherwise remained largely unaltered and continues to be used for worship (as of 2024).