ARDROSSAN’S Barony St John was a church in the town from 1844 until its closure in 2014.

During that time it was the venue for what must have been thousands of weddings – and it may even be a venue for weddings once again when it gets regenerated into an Events Centre.

In the meantime, it sits derelict while the current owner, Alan Bell of The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety, garners support for the project and applies for funding – or does it really sit empty? Well, in the past year it has been used as a location for an Irvine based band’s music video.

Back in February 2017, The Fall of Eve rock band spent from 6pm one evening until 7am the following day in the church building filming a “night shoot” for their latest song “If Even Angels Fall”.

The video proved a huge hit with their fans (over 11,000 views to date) due to the music, the theme and the atmospheric quality provided by the Barony St John Church.

At Easter time the church was used for an Easter egg hunt by Alan’s children and their friends who were amazed at the amount of hiding places a deserted church could offer including the pews, the organ and even hidden in the baptismal font.

But most recently, the church building was used for a pre-wedding photo shoot for local couple David McKean and Emma Fotheringham.

David and Emma got engaged at the end of 2016 and they will be getting married at Rowallan Castle on May 12 this year. They both live at Church Place and have a view of the Barony St John from their window.

David explained: “The reasons we chose the Barony was mainly because having grown up in Ardrossan I’ve always been interested in its history and architecture and the Barony has always stood out as a unique part of that. It was fascinating to see it with all its original fixtures and fittings and capture some of the atmosphere of the place.

“Living practically in its shadow we always wondered what it was like inside, and being fans of old architecture it was a good aesthetic for the photo shoot as we wanted to do something a little different.”

And they certainly got something different.

Alan Bell added: “We were delighted to accommodate David and Emma and the photographers, Jarvie and Jones, did an excellent job of capturing the history and architecture of the building. Although we couldn’t hold their wedding in the church, we have told David and Emma that they would be welcome to come back to the Barony St John to renew their wedding vows once it is transformed into an events centre.

“We would like to wish David and Emma all the best for their future together.”