Strachur and District Local History Society

12/06/2026

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Following Gerry's great Time Line we were delighted to receive this from Robert Reid with his amazing illustrations

05/06/2026

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Great piece of work in progress by Gerry Burke. Ignore any of the links, posting looking for anything anyone can add. Thanks.

03/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who took part and supported our event on Saturday. We had 50 folks talking part in the history walk and the same number viewing our exhibition in the hall throughout the day. Thanks to David Dorren for taking photographs and Patrick for drone photo of Betty Jenkins house foundation.

29/05/2026

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One of the precious finds from our Dig of the Washerwomans House was the iron heel plate from her clog. Come and see the rest of the finds at Strachur Memorial Hall tomorrow (30th may) 10am - 4pm

26/05/2026

24/05/2026

22/05/2026

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Cowal Ari Sawmill

18/05/2026

Gerry Burke has always been helping Strachur and District History Society, research behind the scenes and comes up with the information we need many times.
Posting this great piece of research on his behalf -
My comment on the previous post re. mysterious Rev Alexander McLaine begs questions I still can't answer but the earliest recorded minister to the parish surely deserves more than a fleeting ref. in the Church of Scotland's official pulpit personnel register.
God only knows what brought him from his native isle of Mull to Strachur in "enemy" Campbell territory where, in 1652, there was no manse and the old kirk of "Kilmaglais" was a ruin.
A member of the "rebel" Lochbuie MacLean sept he'd graduated (M.A) from Edinburgh university six years earlier and, initially, took up the charge of Kilbride in Arran where his predecessor appears to have had Jacobite sympathies and a fondness for drink. McLaine didn't last long for some reason and some of the elders of Strachur and Strathlachlan were also unhappy with him initially.
He appears to have settled down but, while the Argyll Synod was happy with his translation of some of the scriptures into gaelic, Dunoon presbytery had to reinforce his efforts with domestic parish "discipline" issues..
It's unclear from scrawled minutes of the time where he lived and preached but he was deprived of his ministry by an act of parliament in 1662 for defying the return of Scottish episcopacy.
He appears then to have returned to an island in "McLaine" territory where he ministered, possibly unofficially for ten years, until he received an indulgence from the privy council and sailed south with his wife and family to replace another dissident minister on the Isle of Bute in the wake of the notorious witches' trials. At Kilchattan, he appears to have been censured for continuing the practice of husbands and wives being buried separately at ancient St Blane's chapel.
How and where his career ended I've no idea but two of his sons, John and Thomas literally followed in his footsteps to preach in his previous parishes in Cowal, Bute and Arran before moving to Ireland.
It was Thomas's son James who veered off the presbyterian track to seek his fortune in London as the "Gentleman Highwayman" on Hounslow Heath and Hyde Park. His inherent good manners and civility earned him the nickname among his celebrity stage and political victims. He was hanged at Tyburn in 1750 and some of his victims wept, apparently. His partner in crime William Plunkett was never caught. His brother Archibald inherited the family vocation as a renowned presbyterian minister and scholar in the Netherlands.
PS: The 1999 fictionalised comedy movie Plunkett and MacLeane starred Jonny Lee Miller as McLaine and Robert Carlyle as Plunkett.

15/05/2026

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Reports for Heritors regarding Manse Strachur

27th August, 1924
To John Rhind, (Secretary), Heritors
Cobbled gig shed.
I presume this application has arisen through Mr. Gillies having recently acquired a motor car. The floor of present shed not being altogether suitable for its access.
Remove a strip of causey below the wheels and replacing with a couple of boards for the tyres to rest on.
This could be done at a cost of 20/- or thereby.

1925
Repairs – renew rubber washers on exhaust plug of bath. At present the bath will not contain water long enough to permit one to have a bath.

1926
Mr. Gilles (Minister) to Mr Stewart, (Secretary) Heritors
During service in Strathlachlan Church yesterday, I observed that rain was dropping from the roof into the pulpit.

1927
Maids lavatory, the bracket on which flushing cistern rests has become loose, requires to be fixed up.

Drainage – at present there is no septic tank. Crude sewage discharges into an open drain in glebe from which it is carried when there is rain to the barn which passes through Strachur Park Policies. A septic tank must be provided.

Mr. John C. Stewart
School House

08/05/2026

FRIDAY FEATURE - Mary McNab relative of McNab's Garrel, Strachur