Published: Wednesday, 15th October, 2008 12:30
The Patron Saint of Largs
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Skelmorlie Aisle is the last remaining example of the old church of Largs which is believed to have been built to commemorate the Patron Saint of Largs.
Who is the patron saint of Largs?
Columba is the patron saint of Largs and his birthday fell on the seventh of June - the principal fair of the year was held in June on that date for many centuries - St Colm’s Day. Tradition has been that the Saint founded the mission church in Largs but there is no definite proof of this.
The old church was situated in the midst of the old graveyard in the centre of the village it must have been in existence before Alexander the Third, for the Norwegians claim that some of their countrymen slain in the battle of Largs were buried within its grounds.
Till the beginning of the 14th century the church was a rectory.
In the monastery of Paisley, there are writings which state that in the 13th day of January 1318, Walter, the Steward, for the safety of his soul and that of his spouse, Marjory Bruce, granted to the monks of Paisley the church of Largs plus the chapel of Cumbrae. The monks continued to own the church until the reformation in the mid-16th century. The only part of the old church still remaining is in Skelmorlie Aisle.
In 1812 a church building was erected at the foot of Nelson Street “away from the din of the town” and was superseded in in 1892 by St Columba’s Parish Church.
St Colm’s Day was a very important horse fair in the 18th and 19th centuries with ‘as fine an array of horses as on view in any fair in the country’, and attracted farmers and crofters from the adjacent isles. In those days, there was no pier at Largs - merely a jetty for landing passengers - and how to get the horse and cattle ashore was a problem which was solved by the farmers throwing the beasts overboard and letting them swim for it or sink.
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