Undiscovered Scotland

 

Tenandry Kirk stands in a remote location on a minor road above the west bank of the River Garry as it passes through the Pass of Killiecrankie. You can reach it from the south by turning off the B8019 near Garry Bridge and climbing up the hillside on a narrow single track road. The alternative approach is from the opposite end of the same road, which emerges in the village of Killiecrankie.

Tenandry Kirk held its first service on Sunday, 17 July 1836. The story of the church had much earlier origins, however. In 1701 the Duke of Atholl wrote a letter highlighting the need for more churches in the area, pointing out that existing ones were so widely dispersed that some people had to walk up to 12 miles to attend a service, then the same distance back home again. The Duke's views received a sympathetic hearing, but nothing was actually done as a result, and many residents of the area would continue to have to walk long distances to church for more than another century.

In the early 1830s the owners of the Tenandry Estate, Mr & Mrs Hay of Seggieden, approached the Scottish arm of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, offering land and an endowment to build a "Chapel of Ease". This was the phrase used to describe new churches built to ease the lot of parishioners who had previously needed to walk long distances to worship each Sunday.

The result was the building of a church and accompanying manse, set in six acres of land. The Church of Scotland agreed that the new church should serve an area carved out from three surrounding parishes. The area was believed at the time to have 800 residents and the church was built to be able to accommodate 400 of them. The church that opened its doors in 1836 was built to the T-plan pattern common at the time, with a pulpit set mid way along one wall: in this case the local geography dictated that this should be the west wall. Each of the arms of the "T" had a gallery and there were 54 pews in all, 28 downstairs and 26 in the galleries. Pews were allocated to particular settlements within the area, though there were also pews reserved for the poor, the session and the minister. Two services were held every Sunday, one in Gaelic, the other in English.

In 1851, Tenandry Kirk became the centre of a parish in its own right, rather than a chapel of ease for the use of residents of nearby parishes. In 1954 the parish was linked to the parish of Foss and Tummel. From 1981 to 2000 the kirk was considered to be a "continuing vacancy": with no formally appointed minister and services taken by a number of different people. In 2002 the parish was linked with the neighbouring parishes of Blair Atholl and Struan and a minister was appointed to serve all three.