The first steps are being taken in a money-raising mission to save the bells of a historic church.

Parishioners of St Patrick's in Dumbarton are making their annual parish walk on Sunday, April 27, a sponsored fund-raiser as they embark on the first leg of a quest to raise around £23,000.

Canon Gerry Conroy, the parish priest, said that a recently commissioned report from Taylors, Eayre and Smith Ltd, a famous Loughborough-based firm of bell founders, bell hangers and engineers, contained bad news for the parish.

It indicated that major work is needed to maintain the carillon of 23 bells - one of only four in Scotland - in St Patrick's red sandstone bell tower, which was completed as an addition to the imposing Strathleven Place church in 1927.

Canon Conroy said: "St Patrick's was built at the beginning of last century and officially opened in 1903, and the bell tower and bells were added 24 years later.

"We have a magnificent church here, which has been handed down to us in trust from past generations, and the parishioners are rightly proud of it.

"The engineers' report indicates that work needs done to maintain the carillon and bells and to stop further deterioration and damage in the tower.

"Unfortunately, the final cost of this work is likely to approach something in the region of £23,000 and possibly even more than that."

He added: "After consulting the parish Fabric and Finance Committee, I feel that this work should be undertaken, not simply for the preservation of such a significant part of our parish inheritance, of which we can be justly proud, but also because the bells are one of the ways in which we signal the continuing existence of this community of faith to the wider community of Dumbarton.

"So, in order to raise the money for the bell repairs, it has been decided to initiate a series of fund-raising events, one of which will be our annual walk to Overtoun House in the hills behind Dumbarton."

The St Patrick's carillon includes a ringing bell weighing almost 20 hundredweight, which was placed in the tower on St Patrick's Day in 1927.

A Ting Tang clock and automatic Angelus were installed at Christmas that same year and the chime was subsequently increased to a carillon of 23 bells, inaugurated on August 19, 1928.

Canon Conroy said: "In addition, once the bells have been repaired, all who take part in the fund-raising draw can designate a Sunday of the year on which the bells will be rung after the 12 noon Mass to honour the memory of someone they hold dear."

Many churches across the world have used bells cast at Taylor's Bell Foundry, including the largest bell in Britain, "Great Paul", at St Paul's Cathedral in London.