Òran Mór was founded as the Kelvinside Free Church, with the foundation stone laid on 4th September 1862. Throughout the 1900s, the church served as a Parish church of the Church of Scotland for the people of Kelvinbridge and Hillhead. By the late 1970s, the congregation had dwindled and the former Kelvinside Parish Church became redundant and derelict on its prominent site on the corner of Byres Road and Great Western Road.