St Columbas, Whiting Bay, Arran

This is an earlier 19th century building, extended in the later 19th century, originally comprising a school and manse arranged in an L-plan. It is constructed of stugged and snecked cream sandstone with a slate roof. The external features include a base course, chamfered angles with bracketted skewputts, and coped end stacks. The earlier section has single 8-pane timber sash and case windows, while the rest of the building incorporates bipartite 2-pane windows and single 4-pane windows, all with chamfered jambs.

The south elevation has a gable on the right and a gabled ashlar doorpiece on the left, with a shouldered base, bracketted skewputts, and decorative bargeboards to a shallow slate roof. It features a two-leaf panelled door with a fanlight and moulded jambs. A single bay is slightly recessed to the left, with a window on the ground floor and a gabled dormerheaded window above. The east-facing elevation has a bipartite window with a bracketted slab canopy and a gabled dormerheaded window above. Two lower, earlier bays are slightly recessed to the right, with two windows each. On the north elevation, a gable is on the left, with a doorpiece similar to that on the south elevation, but with the roof removed and the door blocked; a small figure is set within a niche above. Various smaller additions are recessed within the re-entrant angle to the right.

The interior of the former schoolroom has a ribbed coomb ceiling, plain cornices, and decorative cast-iron balusters to the staircase.

The earlier part of the building may be the Assembly School, established by the Church of Scotland from 1823, as mentioned in historical records. The head teacher received an annual salary of £25, which was considered high and reflected the building’s unusually high quality in comparison to other schools. It appears the original building was raised, and the extension was likely added in 1873, coinciding with the construction of the former parish church. The building has also served as a manse, as indicated on the Ordnance Survey map of 1895.