1876 -- St Kilda’s Church

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Built and paid for by MacLaine of Lochbuie for the people of the south end of Mull, it having been found to be impossible for the whole of Mull to be looked after by one minister.  The church was consecrated in 1877. Ironically there is no St. Kilda on record, but Lochbuie apparently convinced the Bishop of Argyll over a decanter of port, after dinner, that there was indeed a St. Kilda, when the Bishop was visiting Lochbuie during the construction period.

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Built into the south wall of the porch is an early Christian stone, bearing a ring-headed cross that was unearthed at a considerable depth when the foundations of St. Kilda’s were being prepared. As there is no record of a chapel or burial site previously occupying the site, its origin is intriguing as a cross of this simplest and earliest form, dates the cross as more than 800 years old. There are various memorial tablets dedicated to the Maclaine family and others associated with the Lochbuie estate. Relics obtained by the Lochbuie after the Franco-Prussian war are installed in St.Kilda’s.

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The church is today, still used for joint services for Church of Scotland and Episcopalian worshippers.