27. ‘Telford’s Highland Churches and Manses’

by Allan Maclean of Dochgarroch

Synopsis

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, population movement in the Highlands and Islands meant that large numbers of people were living in new settlements far from their parish churches.

The Church of Scotland appealed to the Government to help remedy this problem, and funds were released for building churches and manses for resident ministers, and their stipends. However the choice of sites was dependent on offers from landowners, not always where they were most needed.

The design of suitable buildings was put out to the engineers working for the Commission on Highland Roads and Bridges, and then chosen by Thomas Telford.

Image caption: Church and Manse at Stenscholl, Isle of Skye

About the speaker

Allan Maclean of Dochgarroch studied this subject, which included a full site survey of the church at Stoer, near Lochinver, when he was a student at Edinburgh University. His study was later extended and published by SHIHR as one of its series on aspects of Highland history.

Allan is a clergyman in the Episcopal Church, and has had several parishes in the Highlands, including St John’s Cathedral, Oban. His published work includes various articles on ecclesiastical architecture in the Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, on whose national board he has also served.

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