Doors Open Inverclyde

Today as the weather was so good we decided to spend the day covering Doors Open in Inverclyde.

We started at the Old West Kirk on the Esplanade. This was the first post reformation church built in Scotland and opened in 1591. It possibly has the best collection of pre-Raphaelite stained glass under one roof in the UK. There is work by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rosseti, Daniel Cottier and Ballantyne & Co. The lovely guide who took us round the building was fabulous. I wanted to take her home with me. May go back tomorrow to take some images of the fabulous stained glass windows.

The cruise liner Emerald Princess was docked in Greenock, so we wanted to go on the behind the scenes tour of Ocean Terminal, but it was fully booked, so we visited the fabulous facilities at the Cookschool at Stepwell, where we had some tasty butternut squash soup with parmesan cheese. Touches of Jamie Oliver's 19 going on here.

We then visited the Dutch Gable House, one of the oldest surviving buildings in Greenock. Walked over to Wellpark Mid Kirk on Cathcart Square. Known affectionately as ‘The Toon Kirk’, this handsome classical church with an ionic portico and steeple modelled on St. Martin-in-the Fields. Again the guides were so friendly and helpful.

We then got back into the car and drove to Kilmacolm to visit Quarriers Village. Before taking the tour we had a fabulous lunch at the Three Sisters Bake. In 2011 the Reith sisters all gave up their corporate nine-to-five desk jobs to fulfill their life-long ambition – to open up their own café. After a lot of deliberation my wife chose the seafood platter of smoked mackerel pate, coriander & chilli prawns and Scottish smoked salmon served with lemon & black pepper crème fraiche with rough oatcakes and I had the toasted bacon & brie focaccia topped with homemade red onion chutney. The food was delicious and we will certainly be coming back.

After lunch we joined a group on a walking tour that took us round the village, which was the brain child of William Quarrier. He opened his first service for destitute children in Glasgow on 18 November 1871. He resolved to take these children from the Victorian institutional environment to a children’s village where they could live in cottage-style homes with house parents. The first cottage in Quarriers Village began in 1877.

All the houses built in Quarrier's Village have an individual style; from Gothic, French, Old English, Scottish baronial and Italian. Despite this mix of styles, one architect is responsible for virtually the entire village: Robert Bryden of the Clarke and Bell firm in Glasgow. Bryden worked free of charge on the Quarrier's projects over a course of some twenty-eight years

Now mostly privately owned, this picturesque village remains largely unchanged since its beginning in 1878 and is a fascinating piece of social history. This is a photograph of the original School House.

Our day finished with a tour of the Royal Gourock Yacht Club. This private members’ Club was designed by Stewart, Tough and Alexander. Built in 1902, this arts and crafts style yacht club was mostly funded by James Coats Junior of Paisley. After our tour we had a relaxing drink in the clubhouse.