Lamlash And Kilbride Parish Church, Shore Road, Lamlash, Arran

This is an A-grade, late 19th-century, T-plan Gothic-style parish church located on Shore Road, Lamlash, Arran, built in 1886 by H and D Barclay. The church has an aisleless design, dominated by a very tall, campanile-like tower. It is constructed of snecked, bull-faced red rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings, topped with a green slate roof and terracotta ridge tiles. A deep base course and eaves course run around the building, with buttresses to each gable. The gables feature sawtooth skew detail with pedimented kneelers, stepped lancet detailing, and finials (some now missing) at the apex. Single pointed windows are a feature, each with nook shafts and hoodmoulds. The front gable has a three-light stepped window in a matching style, and the east gable has three stepped lancets with chamfered arrises, featuring chainlink pattern leaded lights. Decorative rectangular cast-iron downpipes with fixings and hoppers are present.

The north elevation features the advanced tower, with a window at ground floor level. A boarded door is located on the left return, set within a multiple-moulded, pointed-arch doorcase with squat nook shafts and foliate capitals. The upper stage of the tower is corniced and includes architraved, three-light pointed-arch belfry openings on all sides, with a row of flight holes set back as an eaves course, topped by a finialled pyramidal spirelet. Two windows are visible to the nave on the left; a shallow transept is to the right, with three windows, and one window to the right return. Four lucarnes are visible on the nave roof.

The east gable has a three-light window. The south elevation features four windows to the right and an advanced transept to the left, incorporating a shouldered-arch doorpiece at centre and three windows. A window is located to the right return, and four lucarnes are present on the nave roof.

The west gable has a low, gabled transverse vestry at centre, with a pedimented dormerhead, along with windows to the left and right returns. Doors to the left and right returns link to an adjoining section, and a three-light window is present. Two squat octagonal stacks are located to either side of the gablehead.

The interior features boarded vestibule and three pointed ashlar arches leading to the transepts, supported by polished granite columns with foliate capitals. A boarded dado runs around, and original pews with bookrests are angled towards the communion table at the crossing. A tripartite Gothic sedilia is located at the centre of the west end behind the communion table and pulpit, and an open work gallery is positioned above. Doors with pedimented overdoors are located to the left and right. Organ cases are situated at the far left and right. Various memorial stained glass windows are present, with patterned stained glass elsewhere, and featuring hoodmoulds. Early light fittings are also visible, along with a corniced wallhead, gallery and a boarded barrel-vaulted ceiling with arched braces extending down to ashlar-corbelled wall posts. The tower houses a nine-bell carillon, cast by J Wilson, bellfounders, of Glasgow.

To the front of the east end stands a grey stone cross on a base depicting the spirit of Christ rising from a chalice, alongside a small round baptismal font. These items were unearthed in the graveyard of the old Kilbride Church in 1892 and are believed to be from the 14th century. A small, round structure of bull-faced red sandstone with a faceted conical green slate roof serves as a former closet, now housing the organ blowing mechanism, and features an ashlar doorcase.

A boundary wall of ashlar-coped red sandstone rubble extends to the rear, with a chamfered ashlar gateway. Two pyramidal-capped ashlar gatepiers are present at the front, one at the northeast angle and a simpler pier at the northwest angle. Decorative cast-iron railings run along the north and east sides.