North Parish Church - Saltcoats

Image: © Raibeart MacAoidh Taken: 9 Feb 2017

The original North Parish church was situated in the town on the site now occupied by Sainsbury's Supermarket in the centre of Saltcoats. The North Church was erected by subscription in 1836 as a meeting-place for Gaelic-speaking worshippers in the district, and at the Disruption of the Church in 1843, the minister and the larger part of the congregation seceded from the Church of Scotland. Later, services were conducted in Gaelic and English alternately, until in 1873 the North Church was constituted as a Mission Charge under the Parish Church Kirk Session. In 1906 the North Church became a parish church of the Church of Scotland, the best‑remembered minister being the Rev John R. Spottis­wood, whose only charge it was, and who ministered to the congregation for 40 years, from 1899 until 1939. After the second world war the Church of Scot­land recognised a need for a new church to serve the expanding population in the housing areas above Saltcoats High Road, and the North Church was "translated" to a new meeting-place at the Border crossroads where the congregation met at first in a wartime Nissen hut, called St Medan's Hall, then in a hall-church, until the present new North Church was built.

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