Landmark church spire gleaming again following £400,000 restoration

A church spire once deemed to be at risk of collapse is gleaming once again following the completion of a £400,000 restoration project.

The Crown of Thorns spire of St Michael’s Parish Church in Linlithgow, West Lothian, which is visible from both the M9 motorway and the Edinburgh-Glasgow train line, has undergone refurbishment to repair extensive rot in its structural timbers.

Its external cladding has also been replaced with a new, bronze alloy cladding, returning the spire’s colour to the shining glow of the original structure built in 1964.

Retired architect Brian Lightbody, who led the project, said: “The location, design and materials involved have made this an unusually complex project.

“We’re confident the spire will stand proud for generations.”

Alan Miller, leader of the church’s Aspire Linlithgow fundraising programme, said: “We are hugely grateful to our grant funders: Historic Environment Scotland; the Church of Scotland General Trustees; the Scottish Landfill Trust; and the Pilgrim Trust.

“But everyone who has donated in any way should feel a sense of pride that their contribution is reflected in the gleam of the renewed spire.”

The Reverend Dr Liam Fraser, minister of St Michael’s, said: “Sixty years on from the installation of the spire in 1964, the excitement this project has generated locally is astonishing.

“Both a beloved symbol of the town, and a representation of Christ’s Crown of Thorns, it speaks to people in many different ways: of certainty, of renewal, and even of eternity.

“But the most common reactions on the street at present are simply, ‘Wow’, or ‘Amazing.'”