The History of the Church in Mackay Country
By Reverend John Mann
The Droving Minister
Tongue, incidentally, was not the only parish to have unhappy ministries. John Skeldoch, minister at Farr from 1732 - 1753, farmed one or two of the townships of Strathnaver, and bought the cattle of the common people. He was far from popular with his parishioners, who regarded him more as a drover than as their minister, and were always complaining about him to the Presbytery.
Murdoch Macdonald of Durness initially defended him, feeling that his opponents were motivated by malice, and were being too hard on the man, but eventually wrote in his diary “I find him continually involving himself in things that common prudence might make him shun, nay, when his worldly mindedness breaks out in such glaring instances . . . I must in all likelihood change sides.”
In 1748 Skeldoch’s case came before the Synod of Sutherland and Caithness. He was suspended for a time, but narrowly survived a motion to depose him.
Fortunately for the people of Farr, Skeldoch’s successor, George Munro was much more popular. It was said of him that as a man he was distinguished by simplicity of character, frankness, sincerity, benevolence and hospitality, and as a minister, by an ardent zeal for the glory of God and the good of souls. (Munro was the grandson of the aforementioned George Squair, and uncle of Donald Sage, who was Missionary at Achness in Strathnaver, and whose Memorabilia Domestica contains a graphic account of the Strathnaver clearances.) During his time, in 1774, a new church was built at Farr. It is now the Strathnaver Museum, but Munro’s initials, painted in big letters behind the pulpit, can still be seen there.
Former Church – now Strathnaver Museum. Photo kindly provided by Strathnaver Museum.
Balnakeil Churchyard.. This photograph forms part of the Durness Photo Archive. Kindly donated by: (Billy Morrison) ED29A12
The Pulpit, Strathnaver Church – now Strathnaver Museum.
Photo kindly provided by Strathnaver Museum.
Murdoch Macdonald – Minister, Diarist and Musician
Murdoch Macdonald, to whom reference has already been made, was minister of Durness from 1726 to 1763. He is not just remarkable for his diary, nor even for the fact that he was a well loved and able minister, but for his interest in music and poetry. He was an accomplished musician, a fine singer, and the composer of numerous Gaelic airs. His son Patrick, became minister of Kilmore near Oban, and edited an important collection of bagpipe music, much of it gathered in Durness, known as the Macdonald Collection. Murdoch Macdonald was a voracious reader, and particularly enjoyed the poetry of Alexander Pope - translating Pope’s Messiah into Gaelic verse, and reciting it to his parishioners at fellowship meetings and in the course of his pastoral visits.
Macdonald is also remembered for his association with the poet Robb Donn (1714-1778) who was born and died in the parish of Durness, and who is buried in the old church at Balnakeil. Donn, in fact described Macdonald as the most important influence on his life (Grimble). Interestingly enough, many have detected a marked similarity in outlook between Donn’s poetry and that of Pope. Could Donn have known Pope’s writing through Macdonald?
Curiously, while Donn did what he could to spread the fame of Macdonald - in his fulsome elegy for him wrote:
“. . . If it could be a tribute or service to you
To raise your fame on high for you,
Who should do it more than I
And who could deserve it more than you?”,
Macdonald does not mention Robb Donn at all in his diary. Interestingly enough, however, (in the words of Ian Grimble) “we owe it to the ministry that the compositions of Robb Donn were written down in time to save them . . . - to the daughter of the Reverend John Thomson in Durness, to the Reverend Aeneas Macleod in Rogart, and to the Reverend Donald Sage . . . .”