Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 20/06/2026 18:27:00

Converted from a redundant Glasgow church, Oran Mor is a multi-purpose arts, music and events venue at the top of Byres Road in the city's West End, opposite the Botanic Gardens. Its name, Scottish Gaelic for "great melody of life" or "big song", reflects the ambition of its creator, the publican Colin Beattie, to turn a derelict building into a cultural centre wrapped around a very good pub. The building was founded as the Kelvinside Free Church, its foundation stone laid in September 1862, and served as a parish church until the congregation dwindled and it became redundant in 1978. Refurbishment began in 2002, and after a painstaking and costly restoration the venue opened in June 2004 as a labyrinth of bar, brasserie, nightclub and event spaces. A highlight of the conversion is the ceiling mural by the artist and writer Alasdair Gray, one of Scotland's largest pieces of public art, which crowns the auditorium. That auditorium, along with The Venue nightclub, a private dining room, bars and two restaurants, hosts a wide programme of weddings, banquets, conferences, gigs, comedy and ceilidhs, with space for events ranging from small workshops to banquets of more than 250. Oran Mor is best known for A Play, A Pie and A Pint, the lunchtime theatre initiative launched in its first autumn by Beattie and the late David MacLennan. It endures as Scotland's longest-running daytime theatre series, premiering new short plays from established and emerging writers and regularly playing to sold-out crowds. By combining a working bar and restaurants with a nightclub, an event auditorium and a renowned theatre programme inside a restored Victorian church, Oran Mor has become a landmark of the West End. Its mix of drinking, dining, music and theatre under one roof gives it a character few other Glasgow venues share.