5 reasons the Old High Church in Inverness still matters
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It is just over a year since the last regular service was held at the centuries-old A-listed Old High Church on the banks of the River Ness.
The Church of Scotland said it was not financially viable to maintain both the Old High and the B-listed St Stephen’s in the Crown area of Inverness and a question mark still remains over the future use of the building, which is now closed to the public.
Whatever its future holds, however, it remains a significant part of the city's history.
Links to St Columba:
The church stands on St Michael’s Mount where St Columba reputedly converted the Pictish King Brude to Christianity in 565AD.
The king is said to have given Columba, the Irish abbot credited with spreading Christianity in Scotland, a plot of land on the site to build a church.
While no trace of that structure remains today it certainly makes the site in the heart of Inverness one of the most noteworthy in the history of Scottish Christianity.
Links to the Battle of Culloden:
The church was requisitioned by Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite forces ahead of the battle in 1746 and used to imprison government forces.
When the Jacobites were defeated the roles were reversed and prisoners were executed within the churchyard itself.
It is said weaker prisoners were propped up against one gravestone while their executioner used a notch in another to ensure an accurate shot from his musket – both gravestones are still standing.
The mark made by musket balls can still be seen in the tower wall.
It incorporates the oldest built structure in the city:
The present church was built between 1770 and 1772 but the lowest part of the west tower dates back to the 14th century, making it the city’s oldest building structure.
The Curfew Bell:
For many years, since 1703, a bell in the Old High Church tower was rung every day at 5pm, marking the start of a curfew preventing the risk of fire breaking out from people carrying lanterns in the dark through streets where most of the buildings were made of wood.
The bell was silenced during World War II but was later rung at 8pm nightly – though the curfew, of course, no longer applied.
Since the church closed the bell has, sadly, been silent but its story remains an important part of social history.
The Cameron Memorial:
The Cameron Barracks was built in Inverness in 1884 without a chapel so that the Old High became the church for the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.
The colours of various battalions were placed within the church, in an area dedicated as the Cameron Memorial.
Next to this was a display case holding items linked to Rev Donald Caskie.
A minister at the Scots Kirk in Paris, he helped Allied service personnel escape from France during World War Two.
Both the colours and Rev Caskie's items have been moved for safekeeping since the church's closure but, again, they remain important markers, in Inverness's story.
