General view of church

Description General view of church

Date 27/9/1883

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number IN 938

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 746318

Scope and Content St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Arisaig, Highland, from the south-west St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, a tall Gothic-style church, completed in 1849 to designs by the architect, William Burn, rises from the hillside at the east end of Arisaig, a small village at the head of Loch nan Ceall, a sea-loch on the west coast of the Lochaber peninsula. The Victorian photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed the church c.1883. The church, set against the mountains of Lochaber, is rubble-built with ashlar dressings. It has four-bayed flanks, and a three-storeyed square tower, with a large pointed-headed first-floor window, projecting from the west gable. In the graveyard to the south are the roofless remains (right) of St Maelrubha's Church, a 16th-century church said to have been built by John Moydartach, Captain of Clanranald. Lochaber was traditionally a predominately Roman Catholic area. In the early 19th century the existing Roman Catholic church in Arisaig became too small for its congregation, and funds were raised for a new church by the local parish priest, Father William Mackintosh. The new church was opened by Bishop Murdoch in 1849. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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