Clan Donald Magazine No 12 (1991) Online
In Magazine No. 11,
we reported on the Appeal Fund for the restoration of Cille Choirill
Church, Achluachrach. Brae Lochaber. Funds in excess of the
projected �20,000 were raised in a two-year period from early in
1986, including substantial donations from a number of religious,
cultural and historical Trusts, and a series of sponsored walks
following historical routes. The most notable were the contributions
of the descendants of Lochaber emigrants to Nova Scotia, whose
donations roofed the church in the early 1930s, and of those who,
for the present restoration, have raised in excess of �3,000 towards
the cost of essential structural repairs to secure a proper
foundation for the building.
A party of 45 Nova
Scotians, largely from Cape Breton Island and Antigonish, made a
pilgrimage to Lochaber during the month of August, 1989 for a
ceremony of re-dedication to mark the restoration of Cille Choirill
Church, and to visit the sites of their ancestral homes and places
of historic interest in the area. Prior to the Mass of the
Assumption, which was celebrated by Bishop Colin MacPherson of
Argyll and the Isles and Bishop Colin Campbell of Antigonish, a wall
plaque, dedicated to the Rev. John MacMaster who was responsible for
the fund-raising which made possible the rebuilding of the church in
1923, was unveiled. Mrs Ann MacDonell, originator of the Cille
Choirill Church Restoration project, who supplied the information
for this report, was presented by Miss Mary Campbell of Mabou, Cape
Breton Island with a replica of the flag of Nova Scotia which
depicts a blue St. Andrew's Cross on a silver ground surmounted by a
shield bearing the Lion Rampant on a gold ground.
In September 1988,
two bronze plaques were unveiled in Cille Choirill Church. The
plaques, on the inside wall of the church, commemorate Alexander
MacDonell, 17th of Keppoch and his cousin german, Donald MacDonell
of Tirnadris, who served as Colonel and Major, respectively, of the
Keppoch Regiment, raised in support of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
in 1745 and their clansmen, who, like them, lost their lives during
the Rising. The ceremony was preceded by the playing of a
piobaireachd by Tearlach MacFarlane of Glenfinnan House and a short
service was conducted by the parish priest, Monsignor Ronald Hendry.
The plaques, which had been draped in Keppoch tartan, were unveiled
by Norman H. MacDonald, Historian for the Clan Donald Lands Trust
and a Vice-Chairman of the 1745 Association who expressed his sense
of the honour done to him as one whose family by tradition claim
descent from the MacDonells of Keppoch, in having been asked to
perform the ceremony.
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