St. Bridget’s Primary School,

Kilbirnie – 1955.

Built in 1894, under the stewardship of Fr. Thomas Hopwell, parish priest of St. Brigid’s from 1894-1919.

The wing of the school seen in the photo is the original rectangular building; with the boys’ entrance to the left, the girls’ to the right. It was expanded sometime between 1900 and 1910 with the construction of another wing (further up the hill, behind and parallel to this wing), with a connecting part perpendicular to both wings, behind the right hand side of the building in the photo, forming a ‘U’ shape.

The lower playground is visible in the foreground; it was was reserved for boys’ football.

In 1920, a new infants’ classroom was provided in one half of an army hut that had been erected as a parish hall by the young men of the parish. This was affectionately known as “The Hut”. It stood exactly where the present Library is – at the foot of the “Hut Brae”

Construction started on a completely new school in Hagthorn Avenue in 1962. The changeover took place in October 1963.