A Concrete Capping

Those of you who are familiar with the last few miles of the B8007 road in to Kilchoan will know this bridge.  It spans the Allt Rath a' Bheulain, a small burn which drains Beinn an Leathaid and Meall nan Con, and is near the corner of the forestry on Ardnamurchan Estate land at NM519658.  It's a concrete structure with a wall of local stone.  We've crossed it many times, but it wasn't until the other day that Dochie Cameron suggested we looked closer at the capping on the wall.

There's nothing particularly special about the capping, except that it seems odd to cap a stone wall with blocks of concrete when there's lots more nice stone lying around.  But behind such oddities there is always a story.

The concrete blocks, so Dochie tells, are enjoying a second life after once being part of.... a floating church.  Now there are many things in this world which float, but in general two things don't: churches and concrete.  Yet Dochie's story is true.

When, after 1843, the newly-established Free Church began to attract a congregation in Strontian, those good people went to their laird, Sir James Riddell, and asked him for some land on which they might build their church.  As a member of the Church of Scotland, he resisted, so they came up with an ingenious solution to their problem.  You've got it - they built a floating church out of concrete, which they anchored off Strontian.

A website giving the full remarkable story is here, but it goes on to tell how Sir James Riddell's mind was changed.  What it does not tell is the story of what happened to the remains of the floating church, which Highland Council used to on various structures along the B8007.

Sue and Dochie Cameron run Ockle Holidays.

Click here for details of their three letting houses.