School Visit to St Comghan's

It was a great pleasure to spend part of this afternoon up at the old church of St Comghan's in the company of the thirteen pupils at Kilchoan Primary School. The purpose of the visit was to describe the rich history that lies in and around the church, which dates back to its founding by St Comghan in the early 8th century.

There are things like the two 14th/15th century Iona grave slabs with their carved Celtic designs, birlinns and claymores, their story being that they were stolen from Iona by Mac Iain Ghiorr of Grigadale in the 17th century because he wanted something special to cover his mother and father's resting places.

Then there is the MacColl grave, resting place of a factor cursed by an old lady when she and her family were evicted from Ormsaigmore. She promised that only weeds would grow across it - and today it is still covered with brambles.

This was part of a project between the primary school and the local Heritage Association which we hope will see the children also visit places like Mingary Castle and Camas nan Geall.

How different a school 'field trip' is today when compared to my time in teaching twenty or more years ago. The children collected their information on the school's iPads.