Editing Strontian (section)

== Religious history of Strontian ==
=== Telford Parliamentary Church (Church of Scotland) ===
The village church was built in the 1820s by [[Thomas Telford]], one of 32 "[[Thomas Telford#The .27Telford Church.27|Parliamentary Churches]]" he designed for the Highlands and Islands. The government set up a commission in 1823 under [[John Rickman (parliamentary official)|John Rickman]] to build churches in some of the most thinly populated parishes. The project was funded by a grant of £50,000 and meant to include a manse with each church &ndash; each church and manse to cost not more than £1,500.<ref>
{{cite web
 | title = Telford's Parliamentary Churches
 | url = http://ambaile.org.uk/en/education/tourism/src9.jsp
}}
</ref>
Telford decided that it would be most economical to build all the buildings to the same plan. The layout of each church was a simple T-plan. There were two doors and windows in the front wall, which measured {{convert|52|ft|6|in|m|order=flip|abbr=on|0}}. One gable had a belfry of four plain pillars supporting a pyramidal top. The bell rope came down the outside of the gable. At each side of the building there were two windows. The exterior and interior were undecorated. There was a hexagonal pulpit against the inside front wall.

The church is still in use. The Old Manse, former Church of Scotland Manse, was built to a standard H-plan by Telford in 1827. It is a category C(S) [[listed building]]<ref>
{{cite web
 | title = Strontian Old Manse listed building record and plans
 | url = http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/108113/details/strontian+church+of+scotland+manse
}}
</ref>
and is today a private residence which also houses the Sunart Archives.

=== Floating Free Church ===
Strontian was the site of reputedly the first moored boat church in the country.

Following the [[Disruption of 1843]] in which the Church of Scotland Free (later the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)|Free Church of Scotland]]) walked out of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, a congregation of 500 members around Strontian petitioned [[Riddell Baronets|Sir James Riddell]], who then owned the entirety of Ardnamurchan, for land and permission to build a new church. A number of attendants affirmed, in testimony to the Select Committee on Sites for Churches, illnesses contracted by worshippers attending services held outdoors in inclement weather. A letter by Riddell to Graham Speirs, Esq., notes ''"I find it impossible, conscientiously, to grant sites for churches, manses, and schools, which would imply a sanction on my part, and give a perpetuity on my estates, to a system which I believe to be anti-social and anti-Christian."''<ref>Reports from the Select Committee on Sites for Churches (Scotland) (1847)</ref>

With permission refused, subscriptions were taken from the local congregants of £1,400 to have a suitable craft built in Clyde. A floating church was established 150 metres offshore in [[Loch Sunart]] in 1846.<ref>''Annals of the Disruption; with extracts from the narratives of Ministers who left the Scottish Establishment in 1843'', by Rev Thomas Brown (1893).</ref>
Eventually a site was obtained in nearby Acharacle and a Free Church was built there in 1868.