Area Programmes

No disabled access. Members of the Lodge will be available to answer questions. Car parking is available on street or in main town car park in Shore Street. Light refreshments will be provided.

Lodge was founded in 1790 and the building was consecrated in 1898 by The Provincial Grand Master, Brother Michael Hugh Shaw Stewart.

Lodge Greenock St John’s numbered 175 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded on 1st February 1790 and has operated continuously since that date and has now contributed to our community for almost 222 years.

The Lodge building which is constructed of red sandstone from the long since defunct Skelmorlie quarry is one of the few buildings of character which remain in Greenock town centre.  It is a testimony to the designers, Messrs Boston, Menzies and Morton, who were the foremost Architects in Greenock in the late 19th Century.

First church built in Scotland after the Reformation opened in 1591 by Royal Charter signed at Holyrood in 1589.  Fine collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass from 1864.  Relocated to its present site 1925-28 by James Millar, architect, who designed the roof and tower.

The cruciform plan, walls, tracery and external balustrade stair were all taken from the original site further along Greenock’s waterfront. The roof and tower were designed by James Millar in the 1920s. The main entrance to the church is under the Choir Gallery. The Farmers’ Gallery is marked with a plough and a scale-model of a 20 gun frigate hangs in the Sailors’ Loft. The splendid stained glass is by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Ballantine.

Exhibition, music (some taped) and tours will be available.

Church opens for regular worship at 11am every Sunday throughout the year.  An additional Sunday service at 9am during the summer months and also once a month during the winter.

Welcomes tourists from all cruise liners visiting Greenock and opens for groups by prior arrangement throughout the year.

Museum staff on hand to answer questions.  Shop.  Disabled access and toilets on the ground floor.

Image © www.scran.ac.uk 

William Quarrier began caring for destitute children in Glasgow in 1870. 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 Mount Zion Church was central to the village of 40 cottages, a school, a fire station, workshops, a farm and other facilities. Between opening in 1878 and the mid 1980s the Orphan Homes cared for over 30,000 children.

There will be an opportunity to have a guided walk of Quarriers Village to learn about the interesting history of the Orphan homes of Scotland and its founder, William Quarrier.  The village exists, largely unchanged since its beginnings in 1878 and is a fascinating piece of local social history.   Guided walks of the village will take place at 11 am and 1 pm starting from Somerville Weir Hall which will be signposted from Quarriers Head Office.