Our stay on Isle of Islay, Scotland was in a small village of Bridgend, but our search first took us to Bowmore and the Round Church or Kilarrow Church which is a Church of Scotland parish church, overlooking and serving Bowmore on the Isle of Islay. The “Round Church”, as it is often known, was built in 1767. It has a highly unusual circular design, copied by some churches built in the 1960s.
The Rev. John Murdoch is my 5 times Great Grandfather, 7 generations back. He was appointed the Kirk’s first minister, in 1769, and he was to serve the combined parishes of Kilarrow and Kilmeny, a parish some miles from Kilarrow. However, some parishioners were so offensive that he had to seek refuge in the district of Bruthach and Dubhraich, a moor about two miles from his church until their wrath had subsided. The combination of the parishes continued until 1826 when they again divided.
The search of the church graveyard was not going well, we had come up empty not, may I add one of my husband’s least favorite things to do, more research was what was needed,
The next day we decided to travel to the Reverend’s son Thomas place who was a tenant at Gartbreck around 3 Km from Bowmore, they are hoping to turn it into a Whiskey distillery.
That night while having a meal at the local Inn at Bridgend, we chance to talk to locals at the bar who told us that across the road from where we are staying at Bridgend there was another graveyard much older.
The graveyard was accessed going through an overgrown laneway and under an old aqueduct, we found an rusted gate which gave us access. The graveyard which was very overgrown and covered with Bluebells made it more difficult, as in those days the marker stone were laid flat and weeds and moss covering most of them now as sadly maintenance has not been kept up. Using an old photo from the 1980’s to get our bearing, we found the area where Reverend John Murdoch’s grave but was all covered in weeds and moss. We literally stumbled onto the correct one accidently kicking up the growth we my wife tripped and saw an M uncovered. Found! He must have been watching over us. Managed to clear away the coverage and here he lies along with his wife Catherine Campbell. Next to them was their son Thomas’ grave with his first son Alexander aged 6. We laid some bluebells on their graves and told them about our journey.