History of St.John’s Church, Ballachulish

For many years, some say from the Revolution until 1810, the congregation of the Ballachulish area had no settled incumbent and was served by itinerant Gaelic priests, such as the Reverend Allan Cameron who, with Bishop Forbes, visited the village in 1770.

The Bishop mentions in his journal that he preached to large gatherings from the doorway of a small storehouse which still stands in the present burial ground.

In the early years of the 19th century, the storehouse was converted into a Church, the vestry of which still stands near to today’s St.John’s.

During the episcopate of Bishop Low, who succeeded Bishop MacFarlane in 1819, and often visited Ballachulish, the schools of Ballachulish and Lochaber were started. Rector from 1879 to 1885, the Reverend J.R.A Chinnery-Haldane, built a new school and teacher’s house in the village.

The present Church was built in 1842, consecrated in 1844, with the chancel being added in1888.

The first parsonage was built in 1838 with a new one built during the incumbancy of the Reverend D.Mackenzie between 1861 and 1879. This was sold in 1976 when Ballachulish was linked to Glencoe.

St. John’s possesses the Altar Vessels inscribed ‘Parish of Appin, 1723’, which were purportedly used for Communion by the Jacobite troops prior to the Battle of Culloden in 1745.