Since buying the former Barony St. John church in Ardrossan, our charity has been investigating ways in which the church building can be restored and renovated and what its final use would be.

The most obvious use for such a large space would be an Events Centre and so we set about looking at what the finished interior may look like.

Admittedly, we have an awesome looking organ and a rather unusual stained glass window which could be reset into a frame, wall mounted and backlit as a showpiece (can you see what makes this window unusual?)

But we needed more than this to give the interior of the Barony St. John the “Wow Factor”.

Having visited Glasgow’s Oran Mor venue, I was struck at how similar their ceiling is with ours in the Barony St. John. And so I asked on Facebook if any local artists were interested in helping us to transform the church building.

I got a few responses but local artist Julia Griffin gave the best ideas. She, along with fellow artist Lynn McNally, plan to convert our ceiling into a night sky collage complete with a Celtic zodiac design to highlight our Scottish heritage.

You see, way back in time, the Celts had their own versions of our modern day horoscope. One was based around animals (wolf, salmon, wild cat, etc.) and the other was based around trees (hawthorn, willow, ash, etc.). Julia came up with the idea of combining the two Celtic zodiacs so, for example, what we know as Capricorn (the goat) is a stag in the Celtic animal version but a birch in the Tree version. Julia’s impression of how this combines looks stunning.

I think the overall effect of this unique Celtic zodiac will not only create a Wow Factor for the church building but will also become a huge talking point for visitors eager to see how their birthday / star sign has been represented.

And you know how I’m a great believer in omens when it comes to the preservation and restoration of Barony St. John (I’ve mentioned a few before in these articles and my blog – The Ardross-Ardrossan Omen, The Star of David Omen, The Instructor Omen, The Church Omen, The SAS Omen, The Owner Omen and The Elder Omen), well now I’ve come across The Wolf Omen.

You see, as I looked at Julia’s ideas I was drawn to her representation of a Celtic wolf. It bore an uncanny resemblance to a Pictish carving of a wolf which was found in 1890 on a huge stone monolith in the grounds of what is now Ardross Primary School in the Scottish Highlands.

Not really an omen you may think until I tell you that Ardross Primary School adopted this wolf design as their logo – and it’s the same school as my children attend.

Now that’s got to be an Omen!

Well, we cannot wait to see the finished product, which will take Julia, Lynn and a team of volunteers (hopefully from somewhere like Ayrshire Youth Arts Network) a year to complete this ceiling collage. The big question is now whether we can get funding for this part of our project – something we hope that The Big Lottery’s Our Place can help us with as this will be art on display for hopefully another hundred years to come and will attract locals, tourists and event goers alike.

We were also lucky enough to have another local artist, John ‘Josimo’ Paterson, contact us with an offer to paint William Wallace themed murals around the internal walls of the church building.

John’s work has been showcased at various art exhibitions around the world including London and presently, Paris. He has also won the ‘Best Global Artist’ award in Vienna and the ‘Best Graphics’ award in Romania and he has very generously offered to paint a variety of murals around the upper floor gallery and entrance to the church building.

John’s painting of William and Marion will give you an idea of how lifelike his paintings are. Imagine scenes including the storming of Ardrossan Castle and you’ll begin to see the wonderful images we hope to showcase on the internal walls of the Barony St. John.

I’m sure you will agree that this will also look fantastic especially when connected with our William Wallace Visitor Centre which we detailed in a previous article.

So, have you guessed what was so unique about our stained glass window? Take a look at it again…..this is the only known example of Jesus that I know of where he is portrayed as having a mutton chop moustache instead of a full beard.

Now there’s a talking point if ever there was one – and another example of people popping in to get a photograph (along with a photo of the infamous Spirit of Wallace statue perhaps) – and as we all know, the more people who stop in Ardrossan, for whatever reason, the better for the local economy.

If you would like to read more ‘behind the scenes’ news about our discoveries and the renovation work in the Barony St. John buildings, check out my blog at www.ardrossman.wordpress.com or if you would like to volunteer to help us or know about our charity, please contact us via our website www.ScotCPS.org.uk or look us up on Facebook.

Goodbye for now.