St Andrew’s Kirk Ports was the second parish church of North Berwick. It was built to replace the medieval church by the harbour, which had been badly damaged by a storm in 1652. Sited at the back of the burgage plots on the south side of High Street, St Andrew’s Kirk Ports opened for worship on 5 June 1664.

St Andrew’s Kirk Ports is an important example of an early post-Reformation church. Originally it was a simple rectangular building, in keeping with the post-Reformation tradition. The pulpit stood centrally on the south wall. Gradually, prominent families made their mark. The Sutties of Balgone added an aisle on the south side in 1700 and Sir Hew Dalrymple of North Berwick built his aisle on the north side in 1718. The tower with its ogee roof was added in 1770 – which meant the bell transferred from the medieval kirk could at last rang out again.

St Andrew’s Kirk Ports served the parish for 220 years, but by the 1870s it was considered rather cramped and cold. The final service in the church took place on 3 June 1883 and, a week later, the present parish church opened – St Andrew Blackadder on the High Street. In August 1883 the heritors agreed to ‘allow the walls to stand in order to form a picturesque ruin’. They were ahead of their time: this is the preferred approach to the conservation of important monuments today.

An Historic Building Survey (2011) and a Feasibility Study (2020) by conservation architects have informed this proposal. Broadly, the required conservation works comprise: consolidation of the main structure; and reinstatement of the bell-shaped tower roof.

Works to the main structure include: removing intrusive vegetation and repointing the walls; rebuilding loose masonry at the wall heads and repairing lintels; capping and waterproofing the wall-heads; and consolidating the surviving areas of plaster and render. A paved floor will be installed within the church to facilitate access and use of the conserved building.

The tower roof was carefully removed by East Lothian Council’s masons in 2011 and is stored for re-use. Works to the tower include: removing the dead ivy and roots; replacing the timber lintels where necessary; fitting pigeon protection to the windows; and reinstating the tower roof using the original materials as far as possible.

Located in the heart of North Berwick, and easily accessible from both the High Street and the popular Lodge Grounds, St Andrew’s Kirk Ports is the ideal site for visitors and the community to explore the heritage of the town. The plan is to create a heritage hub, signposting people to other features of interest as part of a town trail.

Once consolidated, there is good potential to use the kirk for a range of purposes and for the site as a whole to become a vibrant community asset. The kirk and graveyard could be used for weddings, commemorations and spiritual activities; cultural events such as story-telling, readings and concerts; educational and family-friendly activities; and temporary art installations, such as nativity scenes or light shows. The site lies immediately opposite a popular café, Steampunk, with its outdoor seating area, which offers possibilities for catered partnership events.

The St Andrew’s Kirk Ports project seeks to give the site new life as part of the present-day townscape. The key to the project’s sustainability is to integrate this nationally important heritage asset into the wider amenity and community of North Berwick.

The project will be undertaken in three main phases:

• Consolidation of the kirk and reinstatement of the tower roof;

• Works to the graveyard including making safe the gravestones, creating a new route connecting the graveyard to the Lodge Grounds, and improving the paths; and

• Installation of new interpretation and development of the site as a heritage hub and for community use.

The project is estimated to cost in the region of £750,000.

The St Andrew’s Kirk Ports project is being led by North Berwick Environment and Heritage Trust. We are now fundraising, but we need your help. If you have skills in fundraising, buildings conservation, landscaping, marketing or interpretation, or would like to be involved in any other way, we would love to hear from you. Please email: nbenvironmentheritagetrust@gmail.com.