The Overtoun story is the story of the land, the people who lived there and a building that has performed many different functions throughout it’s life from home, to hospital, to film location to Christian centre.

Settlers arrived in the area during the Stone Age, hunter gatherers and then farmers. Then in the early Iron Age Celts arrived and fought off the invading Romans causing them to build the Antonine Walls starting at Old Kilpatrick. The Romans left behind them a vacuum that was contested by Britons, Picts and Vikings. Not until the 11th century was the area incorporated into the new Scottish kingdom.

In 1241 Humphrey de Kilpatrick established the clan Colqhuon who seemed to own the land as they sold it to an unknown buyer in the 14th century. The next record of the estate is in 1761 when Gabriel Lang of Greenock bought the land from the Garshack Estate and built a cattle farm on it.

In 1859 the estate was bought by James White a wealthy industrialist from Glasgow who commissioned James Smith, an architect, to build him a country house in the Scots Baronial style. James White was succeeded by his only son John Campbell White (later Lord Overtoun) who built the West Drive for better access to the estate. Lord Overtoun was succeeded by his nephew Dr Douglas White who bequeathed the house to the people of Dumbarton.

After being bequeathed to the people of Dumbarton the house the house was taken over by the Dumbarton County Parks Department before being converted to a maternity hospital. It was then occupied by various organisations including the Spire fellowship, YWAM and the RSPB. More recently it has been used as a film set in various productions and is now in the hands of Bob & Melissa Hill as the ‘Christian Centre for Hope and Healing’.

When James White built Overtoun House it was not simply a family residence but a Christian centre. The Whites used the house as a base for Bible Studies, missions and Christian philanthropy. This spiritual heritage continued with the leases given to Youth With a Mission and Spire Fellowship through to it’s current usage as a Christian Centre for Hope and Healing.