HERE is another story from Roderick Mackenzie's Tales and Legends of Lochbroom, put together about 110 years ago. This abridged one is about Clachan.
"Nearer the manse is Leac na Saighid (Flagstone of the Arrow) from which the fatal arrow was shot that killed the last priest in Clachan, the Sagart Ruadh (Red 'Haired' Priest).
"That Clachan of Lochbroom is one of the oldest burial places and one of the first places chosen for religious worship in the Highlands can be proved from tradition and documentary evidence. (Its) history begins, I think, with the Druidical religion in Clachan, Lochbroom, where human sacrifices were offered up for the forgiveness of sins. Four of these sacrifices were offered in the year, one on the first day of each Quarter.
"I am of the opinion that it was through these sacrifices and feats held at the time that the first day of the Quarter is called by appropriate names for feasts and sacrifices.
"The first day of spring is called Latha Fheill Bride, the first day for the viper to waken and come out of its winter repose.
"The first day of summer is called Latha Bealtain; the first day of autumn, Latha Lunnusdain; the first day of winter, Latha Samhna.
"Long after the Christian religion got hold of the people, even after the Protestant religion came among them we find they were burying their dead inside the parish church of Lochbroom.
"The Presbytery of Dingwall, under whose jurisdiction the parish of Lochbroom then was, passed an act forbidding burial of the dead within the church at Lochbroom.
"The first that died after the passing of the said act was a woman in Ardcharnich. Her son, John McIver, was an elder in the church. Being in said capacity, John thought the Presbytery Act would not be put in force against him.
"But on arriving at the church, he found the doors secured and the minister there with a strong force to prevent John and his party from entering. The minister and his party prevailed and John had to bury his mother outside the church, an act which exasperated John so much he became an apostate (someone who abandons his religion).
"Older people told me that it was from this very John McIver that the late Evander McIver, Scourie was descended."
Evander McIver was a factor for the Duke of Sutherland in the Scourie district from 1845.
