The History of the Church in Mackay Country
By Reverend John Mann
The Bardic Minister – Rev. Munro
Munro’s solution was to write songs to instruct them in the teachings of the Bible. His songs achieved great popularity and were sung by people as they went about their work as well as in their homes for generations. These songs were not only to have a great impact on the religious life of his parish, but were also to be an influence on other religious poets in the Mackay Country, such as John Mackay of Mudale in Strathnaver, who wrote in the early 18th century, and whose songs in turn are believed to have had a profound influence on Dugald Buchanan of Rannoch (1716-68). Buchanan, regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest religious poet, got to know the songs from soldiers from the Mackay country garrisoned at Dunkeld after the Forty-Five. (Grimble)
Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Presbyterianism was outlawed in Scotland, and persecution of those who refused to conform soon broke out. Around about this time (though no one knows when), one of the most mysterious figures in the history of the Church in the Mackay Country appeared on the scene.
The Strange Tale of George Squair
George Squair, who had, apparently been a non-conforming minister in Warwickshire, arrived, for some unknown reason, in what was at that time part of the Parish of Durness (but is now part of Eddrachillis). He learned Gaelic, and, “with no ecclesiastical status and with no salary, he did the work of an evangelist in what was then a needy corner.” (Macrae)
There was a need in those days for discretion, and meetings were often held in isolated places. One meeting that was long remembered was a communion service held between Rhiconich and Loch Garbat, attended by about 100 people, at which Squair preached with his Bible placed before him on the stump of a tree. George Squair, incidentally, was the grandfather of George Munro, who was minister of Farr from 1754 to 1779, and the great-great grandfather of Dr. Gustavus Aird, minister of Creich Free Church 1843-98, possibly the most eminent minister in Sutherland in the 19th Century.
Outside Sango Church Mr P Keith and Miss Ella Morrison
This photograph forms part of the Durness Photo Archive.
Kindly donated by: (Bernard Hames) ED29A235
John Tallach Secondary School, Ingwenya Mission, PBT 5445, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe2004 - Prefects from Form 3
Kindly donated by: Rhoda Mackay ED14B55
A Want of Bibles
An indication of the religious state of the area at this time comes from, Alexander Munro, (son of the Laird of Kitwell, Kiltearn, in Ross-shire) who became minister in Durness in 1623. He himself had come to faith through the preaching of Robert Bruce, who had been minister of Edinburgh and one of the foremost leaders of the church in Scotland. Bruce incurred the displeasure of James VI, and was exiled to Inverness where the young Alexander Munro was among those who heard his preaching. He found the people of his parish “grossly ignorant, having neither Bibles nor ability to read them” (John Mackay).
This is hardly surprising, since the whole area was Gaelic speaking, and there was no Gaelic Bible at that time. (Bibles in Irish Gaelic became available in the 1680’s, but it was not until 1801 that the full Bible was available in Scottish Gaelic.)
Church, Churchend 1911
This photograph forms part of the Durness Photo Archive. ED29A23
Old Church, Badcall, Scourie 1957
Kindly donated by: Mr A C M Wood ED59A