History : Early Church – 17th Century

A full account of the history of the church in the parish is given in ‘Urquhart & Glenmoriston’ by William Mackay, where he tells us that before the arrival of St Columba, it is probably most likely that the Good News was preached in Urquhart by men such as St Drostan from the south of Scotland.  St Adamnan records that when St Columba came to Urquhart, an old man named Emchat, on hearing the Word of God preached by the saint, believed, and was baptised, along with his son Viriolec, and all his house.

From the time of [St?] Curaden towards the end of the seventh century, until the end of the eleventh century, it is not known who kept the lamp of the gospel burning in the Celtic church, and by the twelfth century we find the Celtic church of St Columba struggling against the encroachments of the Church of Rome.  By 1215, the church of Kilmore came under the protection of the pope.

The Laird of Grant, Proprietor of Urquhart, was a member of the parliament which abolished the supremacy of the pope in Scotland in 1560, and Mr James Farquharson, the Vicar of the Parish, followed him into Protestantism, along with many of the people.  Following the Glorious Revolution, an act was passed in Edinburgh in 1690, which removed the landowners’ patronage in the selection of clergymen, and gave the people the freedom of choosing their own ministers.  One negative result of this act was that, from time to time, it resulted in the people not paying the minister’s stipend.

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