 |
The present church was built in 1855 by the new laird of Stronvar, David Carnegie, who bought the estate in 1849. David Carnegie's fortune was made from brewing and sugar refining in Sweden. He bought extensive lands in Balquhidder glen and transformed his estate into a place of great beauty. The house he built for himself was Stronvar House, where he employed a staff of forty. The Carnegies were good landlords. They have their burial vaults in the ruined church.
David Carnegie
of Stronvar
Born 3rd May 1813, Died 15th February 1890
Susan Mary Ann Carnegie
Wife of David Carnegie of Stronvar
Died 22nd April 1859, Aged 40
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain
David Douglas Carnegie
Their second son
Died 13th February 1856, Aged 8
James Carnegie of Stronvar
Their elder son
Born 17th September 1846, Died 31st May 1925
Mary Bethune Gillespie
His wife
Born 19th September 1849, Died 17th October 1936 |
 |
In memory of
George T. Fullerton-Carnegie
1921 - 1975
and his wife
Frances-May (nee Duggan)
1926 - 1974 |
The architect who designed Stronvar House also built the new Church for David Carnegie. He was David Bryce who has so many fine Scottish buildings to his credit.
As you enter the Church you will see in the porch a plaque bearing the names of all the local people who served in the two World Wars. The War Memorial itself is out in the Churchyard near the boundary wall at the top of the brae. Also in the porch is a plaque commemorating the gathering in 1975 of two hundred members of Clan Gregor from America. They had come to celebrate the occasion two hundred years earlier when the ban forbidding the MacGregors to use their own name was lifted.
In the Church itself probably the beautiful wooden ceiling will make the first impact. The large stone font near the door causes a great deal of speculation. Even the experts have been unable to date it. It is made from local stone. It is not known whether it goes back to pre-Christian days or whether it was a baptismal font in the days of St.Angus. Holes in the top suggest that it once had a cover. It was found in the walls of the 1631 Church as it was being dismantled when the new Church was built. It had been used simply as a building stone. It lay outside until 1917 when, through the initiative of the Carnegie family, it was brought into the Church and mounted on its present pedastal. Today it is used as the Christening font.
In the glass cases will be seen two Gaelic Bibles. In 1685 Bishop Bedell and William O'Donnell published a Gaelic translation of the Bible in London. The Hon.Robert Boyle, the famous physicist (1627-1691) sent to Highland parishes copies of this Bible suitably inscribed. One of the Bibles in the cases is the Balquhidder copy of this Bible dated 1688. The trouble was that this Bible was written in Irish characters. The Highlanders could read only Roman characters, so Rev. Robert Kirke set about the task of transliterating the entire Bible from Irish to Roman characters. His Bible was published in London in 1690, only five years after Bedell's. A copy of this bible is in the case.
Another case shows samples of Communion Tokens. Only after they had satisfactorily come through a severe catechizing by the elders were members issued with those tokens which allowed them to partake of Communion. A further reminder of Robert Kirke is the large bell. He gave this bell to the Church in 1684. It was used in the tower of the 1631 Church until 1896, when it cracked. It bears the inscription "For Balquhidder Church M Robert Kirke Minister Love and Life Anno 1684." Beneath is a Scottish thistle and the initials I.M., probably those of Deacon John Meikle, Edinburgh. He was a well known bell founder who cast a set of fifteen musical bells for St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Balquhidder had an earlier bell which Rob Roy took upon himself to remove to Acharn on Loch Tayside. Since the Church had the Kirke bell Rob Roy probably saw no good reason to there being a second one. It took two hundred years to get it back!
The Kirke bell used to stand on a sinister looking chest believed to have been the charter chest of Grey Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, a ruthless and treacherous persecutor of the MacGregors in the 16th century. It was his son Black Duncan of the Cowl (even more of a terror than his father) who built Edinample Castle on the shores of Loch Earn. It is said that he pushed the builder off the top of the castle to avoid paying him. Unfortunately this chest was stolen and if anybody knows of its whereabouts please let us know.
The tall upright stone against the wall opposite the door is the St. Angus stone or Clach Aonghais, which we believe once lay over Angus's grave in Eaglais beag. On its surface can be seen the incised figure of an ecclesiastic bearing a chalice. This stone was regarded as so sacred by earlier generations that couples who were being married, or parents having their babies christened, stood or knelt on the stone in front of the altar.
When the 1631 Church was built, that part of Eaglais beag which housed the Angus stone was incorporated into the new Church. Then in 1722 along came the Rev. Duncan Stewart, who strongly disapproved of what he called Popish practices, and out went the Angus stone into the Churchyard. There it lay exposed to the elements for about a century until it was moved back into the 1631 Church and stood in an upright position-but still unprotected. Then in September, 1917 on the same day as the font was moved into the Church, the Angus stone was also given its present home. The ceremony was a momentous one attended by a huge congregation and conducted by Professor Cooper, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
|
