John Douglas

The difficulties of ministering in the Parish of Kenmore eventually got too much for John Douglas, who followed Hamilton. Douglas supported the 2nd Earl of Breadalbane in persuading the men of Breadalbane not to “join the rising” of 1745. Ten years later the Parish was to profit from this for Douglas applied for a grant from the “forfeited estates” to repair the roof of Lawers Church. Timber from the Black Wood of Rannoch was given.
Although he tried hard to get a new Manse built he was unsuccessful and, when he received a call from Jedburgh, he decided to leave Loch Tayside. In his address to the Presbytery of Dunkeld prior to leaving he stressed the difficulties facing the minister of Kenmore: “The people of my Parish are a set of tractable men and I know they
love me beyond my deserts — I love them dearly. The stipend of £45 is too small with the price of victuals going up and up: My charge is a difficult and laborious one. Because of its size I sometimes spend twelve days in winter constantly travelling without coming within eight miles of my own house, sometimes sleeping in a little straw by the fireside in smoky and disagreeable houses. The Manse across the river makes the crossing difficult or impossible on a stormy day. Because the peats and turf are taken from the south side of the river my firing is so troublesome and expensive that I am never well provided. Everyone knows what a real inconvenience it is to be ill-served in the matter of firing. When a man comes to old age and infirmities he is unequal to it. Clever, healthy
young men are the only ministers fit for a Highland Charge”.

In 1979 we have reached the stage with the unions of so many rural parishes that, again, only “healthy young men” are able to undertake the work. Mr. Douglas, however, when he had trouble gathering his peats, would have been the better of the services of one lain Mor Chaluim who lived on the lochside during the past century. He was collecting his peats in
his cart which was drawn by a little pony. While he was loading, the cart wheels sank into the soft bog,and,no amount of encouragement or use of the whip would make the little pony budge it. At last lain Mor loosed the pony, got between the shafts and heaved. Later in the evening with his friends, over “a glass”, he said, “I was sorry I had been so angry with the poor beast, it took me all my time to pull the cart out”. Thomas Gray, the English Poet, visited the district during this period and was greatly impressed with the size of the trees growing in the Castle
grounds. He did not seem to have been concerned with the people.

Return To Kenmore Church History