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Small Isles, Church of Scotland

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"SMALL ISLES, a parish, partly in the county of Inverness, but chiefly in the district of Mull, county of Argyll; containing the island of Eigg in the former, and the islands of Canna, Muck, and Rum in the latter, county. This place anciently formed part of the parish of Sleat, from which it was severed in 1726, by act of the General Assembly, and erected into a distinct parish. There is no church; the parishioners assemble in the schoolroom at Eigg, which is capable of accommodating a congregation of eighty persons. Nearly one half of the people are of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and meet for public worship in the house of the priest; and those who are of the Free Church have also a place of worship.

This parish derives its name from the islands of which it consists namely, Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna. Three of them are attached or nearly so, Eigg, Ellain Chaistal, or Castle Island to Muck, Ellain no’ n Each, or Horse Island; and to Canna Ellain Gainmhich or Sandy Island. The only inhabited island is Canna.

Dr. Hugh Macpherson, Professor of Greek in King’s College, Aberdeen, is the proprietor of the Island of Eigg. It became his property by purchase at Whitsunday 1828. Before that period, it, with the Island of Canna, formed a part of the large and extensive possessions of the ancient family of Clanranald. The Islands of Rum and Muck belong to Maclean of Coll, and the Island of Canna to Macneil, who likewise got possession of it by purchase in 1828.

 Agriculture, raising potatoes the main crop, and rearing of black-cattle and sheep, is the main occupation in these islands.

Parochial registers have never been regularly kept in this parish.

There is no church on any of the islands. In Eigg they assembled in the school-house for public worship; but in the other islands they sometimes met in the fields when they could not conveniently get a house to receive them. The manse was erected in the Island of Eigg in 1790. It has often been repaired, but it is so much exposed to the winter gales, and so high above the level of the sea, that it is hardly possible to make it comfortable, or to keep it so for any length of time."

This account was written January 1836.

Source: New Statistical Account of Scotland

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Church of Scotland,
Small Isles

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It is located somewhere in the place at NR540680 (Lat/Lon 55.842344, -5.931032). You can see this on maps provided by:

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