The congregation of Kilmory Parish is loyal and proud of its church and the close-kit community around it. However, on Sunday it will become the fourth, and final, Church of Scotland to close on Arran this year as part of a restructing plan. Here Hugh Boag looks back at its long history.
Kilmory Parish Church boasts a long and proud history dating back to the 12th century.
Its roll of ministers goes back, almost unbroken, to 1560 and it was in Kilmory that the Arran religious revival began in 1815.
In the beginning, Christianity seems to have reached Arran from Ireland, possibly even before Columba settled on Iona. The almost total absence of names connected with Columba and Iona and the naming of the Lamlash Parish after the Irish Saint Brigid – or Bride – support this.
Arran is still referred to as one parish as late as 1326, in the days of Bruce, and there is no record of when the island was divided. The Parish was under the Bishop of the Isles who, at different times, was subject to the Archbishop of Hamburg, then the Archbishop of Trondheim, Norway, then later Saint Andrews and finally Glasgow.
In 1357, the two churches – Saint Mary’s and Saint Brigid’s – suffered the fate of so many parish churches in being handed over to swell the revenues of the important abbey of Kilwinning.
To the charter are Sir Brian, rector of St Mary’s, and William De Foullarton, one of the many Fullertons in Arran records. The charter grants to the abbey the right to appoint to the two churches and all the lands and revenues go to the abbey.
The land, revenues and the right to present an incumbent to this parish are for various reasons, granted to Lord Hamilton 1503 and remain in lay hands until the Reformation.
The rectory of St Mary’s, Kilmory, was valued at £15 in 1326 and the Shiskine lands at £27.6.8d in 1556 when Bishop James Hamilton transferred them to James, Duke of Chatellerault and Earl of Arran. These, in those days, were considerable sums.
The earliest buildings were probably of wood and thatched. Over the hills to the west of Kilmory, are the foundations of a church of St Mary’s on the Sliddery Water near Bennicarrigan. These may be the remains of the medieval church of Kilmory.
By 1776, the inhabitants of the numerous parish of Kilmorie, as it was known then, are petitioning for a new church because the old one was too small by half and past repair. A new church was built at Kilmory in 1785 and the north transept was added in 1810. It was completely renovated between 1880 to 1881 when the alterations, which can still be seen today, were carried out in a Gothic style.
Developments in the 20th century saw the church united with the former mission at Bennecarrigan in 1911. In 1949, the corrugated iron church at Bennecarrigan was sold to Brodick Parish Church. In 1954 it united with Kildonan St Donan’s Church.
Both churches were used until 1968 when Kildonan was sold. That same year, it was linked to Shiskine Church. The link to Shiskine was terminated in 1977 and the church was linked with Lamlash Church, which continued until the closure of Lamlash last week.
Architecturally, the church is aligned east/west with a north transept. It is in random squared rock-faced sandstone with fair-faced dressings. The main entrance is on the west gable via a pointed arch doorway set in a slightly protruding pitched gable. On either side are small lancet windows and above a large curved-sided triangle with three large and three small circular lights. Above again is an open pitched-roof belfry. The side walls have three bays with large pointed arch windows with Y-tracery. Between them are stepped buttresses. The north transept has a large pointed arch window with three main lancet lights. To the rear, east, are the church offices which are set at right angles to the nave.
In recent years, the west gable end with the bell tower were completely repointed with the modern mortar replaced with lime-based mortar to avoid further erosion to the building. The buttresses to the south of the church were also repaired in the same way.
But now, at 10am on Sunday, the church doors will close for the last time as a Church of Scotland place of worship but there is hope a future may be found for a place which has been so important for so long.
Sidebar: Kilmory kirk facts
The manse was built in 1690 and is the oldest inhabitant’s manse in Scotland. Originally it had a thatched roof but, after a fire in 1710, the roof was slated.
In 1705, the church was given two silver communion cups by Duchess Anne but they were destroyed in the fire. She presented new inscribed cups in 1711.
A monument to Surgeon Major William Stewart is installed on the south wall. It was made by McGlashan of Edinburgh.
During a blizzard on December 28 1908, the schooner Bessie Arnold ran onto the rocks at Sliddery and was wrecked. With the exception of the ship’s mate, four crew perished, and it was the figurehead of the ship that served as their headstone in the churchyard. The figure was restored and now sits inside the church beside a memorial plaque. A replica, carved by Marvin Elliot, stands at the place of rest for the crew in the churchyard.
Other notable graves include that of James Begg, born 1836 in Lochwinnoch, died Claynod, Kilmory 1874. He was a great nephew of Robert Burns and a grandson of Isabella Beth, the sister of the poet.
Another is sacred to the memory of Alexander McKenzie, late sergeant of Buteshire Co Militia Regiment who died in the discharge of his duty on the fields of Rothesay by accident or premeditated malice on June 20 1811, aged 34 years. Presumably a local McKenzie, it is one of oldest recorded names in the district.
Kilmory Church which will close its doors on Sunday. NO_B44kilmory02_23_church_interior
The interior of Kilmory Church.
NO_B44kilmory02_23_church_interior
The pulpit and font inside the church. NO_B44kilmory03_23_pulpit_font
The figurehead of the Bessie Arnold inside the church. NO_B47interiors03