St Ninian's Episcopal Church, Bentinck Drive, Troon

St Ninian's Episcopal Church, Bentinck Drive, Troon

This rectangular-plan Arts and Crafts Gothic style Episcopal church was designed by James Archibald Morris, with the foundation stone laid in 1912. The nave was completed in 1913, whilst the chancel, organ chamber and vestry were begun in 1920 and completed the following year. A church hall, designed by John Rutherford Johnstone, was added and completed in 1927. The buildings form an L-plan arrangement.

The church comprises a nave and chancel set under a single roof ridge, with the chancel walls rising higher than the nave. A gabled porch projects to the north-east, and the rectangular-plan hall adjoins the south-west. The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked bull-faced red Mauchline sandstone with polished sandstone dressings. The porch features a half-timbered gablehead. There is no base course, but the building is characterised by overhanging eaves, buttressed angles, polished quoins, and polished long and short surrounds to openings. Windows predominantly have chamfered surrounds and are square-headed, except in the chancel where pointed-arch windows with chamfered cills appear. These windows are topped with architraved hoodmoulds with block stops. A pitched Gothic timber lych gate stands to the front, set on a sandstone plinth, with carved bargeboards.

On the north-east entrance elevation, a single arched opening is set within the projecting porch, offset to the right of centre. Sandstone benches line the inner walls, and a pointed-arched architraved surround frames a timber panelled door centred within, featuring a projecting mouse motif at its base. Simple tripartite windows occupy four bays to the left in the nave, whilst three bays to the left of the chancel contain irregularly disposed cusped and traceried windows.

The north-west side elevation features a square-headed sexpartite window centred in the nave gable facing liturgical west, with a blind oculus aligned beneath the apex where a finial is missing. A single-storey crenellated entrance porch is recessed to the right. A single-storey wing is recessed to the right, linking an eight-bay hall beyond with crenellated outer bays advanced to the left. The hall has regularly disposed tripartite windows and a segmental-arched surround to a timber door in a buttressed porch recessed to the outer right.

The south-east side elevation is dominated by a five-light cusped traceried window centred in the finialed chancel gable facing liturgical east. A single-storey wing is recessed to the left with single and bipartite windows and a segmental-arched surround to a two-leaf boarded timber door to the outer left. The hall beyond features crenellated bays to both outer left and right, with the latter advanced, and regularly disposed tripartite openings.

Windows throughout retain predominantly small-pane plain leaded glazing, with some decorative stained glass. The roof is covered in red tiles with raised stone skews, and original rainwater goods remain in place.

The interior is entered through a pointed arch that divides the nave and chancel. The sandstone pulpit, dated 1921, features naturalistic carving, and the timber chancel fittings demonstrate intricate detailing. An organ is positioned to the west, with the altar dating to 1936. The liturgical furniture includes sedilia and a piscina. Individual timber seats occupy the nave, set beneath tripartite glazing arranged in segmental-arched recesses. A marble font is installed within. Oak doors by Robert Thomson of Kilburn are present throughout the interior, each bearing his characteristic carved mouse trademarks. The nave is spanned by a hammerbeam timber roof, whilst the chancel features a boarded timber barrel-vault. Stained glass windows include the Mackie Memorial window and the Walker Memorial Window by W Wilson, which depicts Spring, Summer, St Ninian, Autumn and Winter among other subjects.

A two-leaf pedestrian lych gate with decorative timber bargeboards and red-tile roof stands at the front entrance.

At the rear of the site, a tile-coped red brick boundary wall encloses the property, punctuated by coursed red sandstone square-plan piers with moulded copes. The gates to these piers are missing.