For £80,000, you could own the church where Dame Helen Mirren got married.
The 1880s building in Ardersier, near Inverness, hosted the Oscar winner’s wedding to film director Taylor Hackford on New Year’s Eve 1997, and the Church of Scotland now wants it off its books.
Why the Church of Scotland is selling up
The former Ardersier Parish Church goes to market after a review of its place in the local congregation.
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Ardersier joined Petty and The Barn Church in Culloden to form a new parish, and the building carried on as a Local Mission Church in the meantime.
That arrangement has run its course.
Rev James Bissett, Presbytery Clerk for Clèir Eilean Ì, said:
“The review period has now concluded and Ardersier Church is being released for sale.”
Any money raised stays with the congregation, he said, to help it keep serving communities east of Inverness.
Nursery, museum or library, no paperwork needed
Buyers get 2,271 sq ft, made up of a main worship area, hall, kitchen, toilet and store.
Garden grounds come with it, and a public car park sits at the back, as reported by Creatorzine.
The building isn’t listed, though it falls within a conservation area.
According to the sales details, it could become a nursery, day centre, educational establishment, museum or public library without change-of-use consent.
Retail, commercial and community uses may work with the right permissions.
Anyone picturing a home will need planning consent first.
It runs on mains water and electricity, with an oil-fired boiler for heat.
In a Highland winter, that boiler will earn its keep.
Helen Mirren’s Highland wedding
Mirren and Hackford reportedly stayed with friends at nearby Castle Stuart before marrying in the village.
Since then the actress, now 81, has won an Academy Award for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, plus a Tony and an Emmy.
Prime Suspect and Calendar Girls sit on the CV too.
Her interest in Ardersier didn’t end at the altar.
In 2016 she backed a campaign to block a controversial sewage treatment plant in the village.
Not every Hollywood star picks a fight over drainage.
Life on the Moray Firth
Ardersier sits on the Moray Firth, about ten miles from Inverness.
It has local shops, cafés, a primary school and coastal walks for anyone who fancies the commute.
Why It Matters
A famous name does more for a listing than any estate agent’s adjective.
Former churches already sell on character, and this one throws in a Hollywood wedding for less than the price of many city flats.
Congregations across Scotland keep merging, and redundant church buildings now turn up on the market with growing regularity.
Whoever buys this one gets a conservation area, a car park and a story nobody needs to embellish.
What they do with the worship area is anyone’s guess.
