Use the links in the listing below to find related items

The wall seen to the right of this image is part of the Old High Church, located on Church Street in Inverness. Part of the church tower dates from the fourteenth century, but most of the building is eighteenth century in origin, with some additions made in the nineteenth century. The site of the church has been a place of worship since Celtic times.

The wall seen to the left of the image is part of Greyfriars Free Church, also known as the old Gaelic Church. The Gaelic Church was established in the aftermath of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. It is said that the King provided a sum of money to build a church for loyal Gaelic-speaking Government troops who were garrisoned in the area and who could not attend worship at the Old High Church.

On 5th March 1830, the Inverness Journal reported that Ezekiel Caspar Auerbach, a thirty-five year old Jew from Warsaw, Poland, had been baptised and received into membership at the Gaelic Church. The Journal reported that the Church was "crowded to excess...with persons anxious to witness a scene so novel in this part of the country".
In 1954 the Gaelic Church was purchased by the Rev. Ewan MacQueen and his congregation, who had split from the Free Presbyterian Church in 1936. The building was briefly renamed the MacQueen Memorial Church until 1958, when the congregation joined the Free Church of Scotland and the building became known as Greyfriars Free Church.

In 1994, the building was sold, and is now a second-hand bookshop.

To view extracts from Jimmy Nairn's films click here

Find out more about the photographer - Jimmy Nairn

This image can be purchased.
For further information about purchasing and prices email:
photographic.archive@highland.gov.uk