The Scottish Episcopal Church

Diocese of Argyll & The Isles

A slate gravestone in St John's churchyard

Saint Columba
Diocese of Argyll & The Isles
Ballachulish - St John looking towards the Pap of Glencoe when the bluebells are out Ballachulish - St John

Main Road, Ballachulish. The Church is on the Main A82 between Ballachulish Village and the bridge. The Congregation is linked to St Mary's Glencoe and St Bride's, Onich
Rector:

Services: Sundays - 11.00am Eucharist or Matins (varied rota )
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Please click here to view Restoration Appeal Website,
Friends of St John's, Ballachulish

Please click here to view the Walk Report for 2008
Please click here to view the Ballachulish Newsletter
Please click here to view the Ballachulish Art Exhibition

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History

From the Revolution until 1810, the congregation had no settled incumbent and was served by itinerant Gaelic speaking priests, such as The Revd Allan Cameron, who with Bishop Forbes, visited Ballachulish in 1770.

These visits ceased in 1784 when The Revd Donald MacColl, a native of Appin, was ordained for the district.

Bishop Forbes mentions in his Journal, that he preached to large gatherings from the doorway of a small storehouse.

This building was used during the Penal Laws, or people met secretly in caves or on the hillsides, and was gifted by John Stewart, Laird of Ballachulish House.
The original church - a barn gifted by Stewart of Ballachulish House in early 18th Century, when Episcopal worship was banned
In the early years of the 19th Century, the storehouse was converted into a church and still stands in the Burial Ground.

During the Episcopate of Bishop Low, who succeeded Bishop MacFarlane in 1819 and often visited Ballachulish, the schools at Ballachulish & Lochaber were started. The Revd J R A Chinnery-Haldane, Rector 1879-85, built a new school & teacher's house in Ballachulish.

The present Church was built in 1842 and consecrated in 1844, with a chancel being added in 1888. The first parsonage was built in 1838 followed by a new parsonage during the incumbancy of The Revd D MacKenzie 1861-79 (sold in 1976 when Ballachulish was linked to Glencoe).

St John's is the "Mother Church" of the area and is in possession of the Altar Vessels inscribed "Parish of Appine, 1723", which were purportedly used for Communion by the Jacobite troops on the evening before the Battle of Culloden in 1745.
Slate gravestones