The community on a mission to restore 200 year old Scots kirk

Then you’ll pass through the stone archway which sits below Campsie High Kirk, the Category A- listed jewel designed by David Hamilton. This has been a ruin for four decades after a fire in 1984, but its majesty will add a touch of Gothic class as you pass from this world.

If you’re to be buried here then you’re blessed indeed. In west central Scotland, no other resting place is as vivid and magnificent as this place whose grave-stones bow down gently to meet the Campsies.

These hills have been home to some of Britain’s oldest, continually inhabited communities. They have sheltered, Romans, Picts and Britons and the earliest Christian communities. At Campsie Glen lies the 11th century ruins of the original St Machan’s church. The saint came here in the 6th century and his remains lie underneath the ruins.

This is where I attended school and where – as an altar-boy at one of the local parishes – I was occasionally summoned to assist in the exequies of kenspeckle legends.

In those endless, blue-remembered 1970s we often played among the tombstones and trying to find the nesting site of a pair of tawny owls. No one told us then that the scary old church casting its shadows among the ghosts had been created by one of Europe’s finest architects. Or that some of these old bones once bore witness to momentous events in the story of Scotland.

The Campsie High Kirk had been fully operational until not long before the 1984 fire that made it a ruin. It’s still rather splendid and will celebrate its bicentenary in 2028. If not for the remarkable efforts of the Friends of Campsie High Kirk it might then have been in no fit state to mark its 200th birthday.

Their hope is that the High Kirk can be restored to something approaching its former glory and become the focal point of a sorely-needed rejuvenation of Lennoxtown. Earlier this week, the Friends group secured a crucial endorsement in what will be a five-year, multi-million pound mission to make this place shimmer once more.

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The High Kirk, like all ownerless property and land in Scotland, had passed to the Crown Estate. Earlier this year, its King’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (KLTR) initiated a scheme by which some of the properties and land-holdings under its jurisdiction could be transferred back into community ownership, but only after a stiff set of criteria around viability, affordability, community value and future purpose can be met.

The Friends of Campsie High Kirk, backed by East Dunbartonshire Council, local community groups and various support agencies secured the High Kirk with an ambitious strategy which has the potential to transform the ailing fortunes of Lennoxtown and its sister villages. Years of raising funds and awareness lie ahead. But this place is worth it.

The façade of the Kirk is still in great condition and there’s a reverence for it in this community. In 40 years it’s never been defaced. In the light and shadows cast by Tuesday’s Harvest Moon, Craig Brooks, Chair of Friends of Campsie High Kirk is walking me round its walls. 

“Our first task is to make some initial repairs that will help stabilise the entire structure and ensure the viability of the building. The last owner had spent around £200k on it but had used the wrong materials. The clock tower is in great condition but the top part is missing. We’ve also been told that a time capsule lies underneath the main foyer. It would be great to see what’s in that.”

Not long ago the Kirk was lit up nightly until the Council switched off the lights. It seemed, that as the Kirk was ownerless, no-one could be contacted to pay the bill. So, because of an outstanding electricity bill the town hall panjandrums decided to put out the lights on one of its most beautiful architectural gems.  

Campsie High Kirk in Lennoxtown. (Image: Robert Perry)

“There are a number of desirable outcomes here,” says Mr Brooks. “The simplest is to maintain the building as a stable ruin, but we’re not doing this merely to stabilise an old building: that’s what the local Council and Heritage Scotland are for. As a community group we have to make this viable.

“We’d like to open up a large space within the body of the kirk to be opened up for weddings, music events, markets. We’d have a stage area, a gantry and an exhibition space, but it would have to be respectful of its Christian designtion. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in Scotland.

“We might create standing stones on which we could tell the story of the early church, St Machan; all the old local industries, its farming heritage and the genius of David Hamilton himself.  The Christian church wrapped round its Celtic origins. We’d aim to have a community garden and make this a nice place to come and sit and have a coffee.”

It would make a superb film location.” Owing to its location and its place in the fabric of Scotland’s ancient history, I’m thinking Outlander.   

Lennoxtown doesn’t really possess the manicured prettiness of some of its neighbours like Fintry, Strathblane, Drymen and Callander. Here, the people lived and worked in the same place. It had little time to dress up nice. Its raiment is the Campsie Hills on one side and the Lennox Forest on the other.  It’s still a very working-class village. Many of the locals are descended from those who worked in the Cornmills, the Cali nailworks and the Calico printing works.

Campsie High Kirk (Image: Robert Perry)

Latterly, there were the Irish immigrants who worked on the roads and the coal mines. Until the early 1990s one of its main employers was the Lennox Castle Hospital, another David Hamilton building and one which was also consumed by fire. They’ve all gone and only a Highland Spring factory offers a few employment opportunities.

Lennoxtown Main Street was once as handsome as its neighbours, but this village isn’t as fancy as Milngavie or Bearsden or Bishopbriggs and so has suffered civic inertia. Old buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair to be replaced by charmless brick shoeboxes like its new health centre and nursing home. No significant social or affordable housing has been built here for a generation.

As we inspect some laminated drawings outlining his vision for the Kirk, we’ve piqued the interest of four teenage girls. They’ve elected an envoy to find out what we’re doing. Her name is Orla and she’s bold and diplomatic. “What are you doing? It looks very interesting.”

She signals to her chums that we’ve come in peace and they all gather round to hear Mr Brooks give an impromptu modern studies lesson and a potted history of this kirk-yard and some of those who lie beneath us. There’s a ghost story. Of course there’s a ghost story.  

Campsie High Kirk in Lennoxtown. (Image: Robert Perry)

Orlaith, Caitlyn, Maisy Mae and Evie are all former pupils of St Machan’s. They would love this place to be restored to something like its former glory.

“We were just talking over there by the gravediggers hut that there’s nothing around here for us,” says Evie. They’re captivated by the prospect of this becoming a concert venue. “Taylor Swift would love it up here,” says Orlaith.

He invites the girls to a community feedback meeting. “You’re the people who’ll benefit from this and hopefully use it,” he tells them. “Your opinions count more than ours. You’re the future of Lennoxtown.”

And then Orlaith and Caitlyn and Maisy Mae and Evie demand selfies in front of the old Kirk. Soon it will be up on Facebook and Instagram and Tiktok. The initial phase of the marketing strategy is underway.