An Argyll village church

DURING the past few years the main road from Arrochar to Inveraray and beyond, the A83 – known as the ‘Rest and be Thankful’ – has become newsworthy on account of periodic landslips which occur after heavy rainfall, not surprisingly, as above it are the ‘Arrochar Alps’ .

This road was built in the 1930s for motor traffic, to supersede the ‘military road built in the 1750s under the supervision of Major Caulfield, in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745- 46. That road is called into play when the 1930s road is blocked. It is the steep final section of the military road to the summit at the head of Glen Croe that gives the name ‘Rest and be Thankful’ to a road designed for marching infantrymen.

Just over the summit a road to Lochgoilhead (B828) branches off to the south. At the junction there was for many years a red telephone box –a welcome sign of ‘civilisation – and beyond that the small Loch Restil. The road then passes through the Bealach an Easain Duiach and then runs down Glen Kinglas to the shores of Loch Fyne, with parts of the old military road still evident, including ‘Butter Bridge’ -a good example of the bridges built in the 1750s. As the road nears Loch Fyne one can catch a glimpse on the left of the pinnacled tower of the church building which is the subject of this article, on the edge of Cairndow village. Nearby is Ardkinglas House with its superb gardens. Cairndow came into being after the construction of the military road, with an inn at which travellers could change horses, stay overnight and refresh themselves. It was

to serve the village and the farms up Glen Fyne that the church of Kilmorich was built in 1816.

In the medieval Church this part of Argyll was an Archdeaconry, based at Lochgoilhead. In the 17th century three parishes, Lochgoilhead, Kilmorich and Strachur were carved out of the Archdeaconry. Lochgoilhead and Kilmorich have been linked since then. Until the military road was constructed the area was united by its three sea lochs, Loch Long, Loch Goil and Loch Fyne, the interior of the parishes being notably mountainous. The partly-mediaeval parish church of the linked parishes survives at Lochgoilhead, known as the ‘Church of the Three Brethren’ .

Kilmorich Church is on an octagonal plan, with a square tower. In this is the entrance to the church, and a staircase to a ‘Laird’s Loft’ facing the pulpit. The building is so neat that it would make a good model.

It has a particular meaning for me in that some years ago a friend asked me to help him to organise a visit to Scotland by a party from the Danish Lutheran Diocese of Aarhus, in northern Jutland. I was very happy to do so.

The Danish party particularly wanted to see something of the Highlands, so we went to Inveraray, over the ‘Rest’. On the return journey we stopped at Kilmorich church which

they much enjoyed. As readers of my Life and Work articles may know, I believe that the Danish Lutheran Church strongly influenced James VI in his introduction of episcopacy into the Church in Scotland in the 1590s. Hence this visit was of real importance to me. To this day a Danish Lutheran service, with its hymn-singing, and sermon (delivered by a ‘Predikant’ wearing a Geneva gown and a white ruff) seems to me to have much of the atmosphere of what the early Reformed Church in Scotland was probably like.

Do visit Kilmorich, Cairndow, and Ardkinglas and think on the links which the Church in Scotland probably has had with the Lutheran Church.