Resolis Church

I photographed this church many years ago and this image on Flickr was the result. The church stood then, as it does now in a very isolated position down a dirt lane on the Black Isle. I've been meaning to get a better shot for some time and today, after a couple of false starts found the right turn off from the main road. As you can see it's been converted into private dwellings. I did knock on a few doors to ask if the owner(s) would mind me taking a couple of pictures but as I got no response decided just to shoot from the lane. I would have liked to shoot from more or less the same position as before but as this would have meant shooting from their garden I thought it best not to even though no-one seemed to be around. Some of the small trees have been cleared which would have made it even easier to choose a spot. You can see in the earlier picture that trees are obstructing the view.
The church has something of a story attached to it. At the time of the so-called Disruption the Free Church separated from the Church of Scotland. The immediate cause was the relation between Church and State and issues relating to patronage - the patron could put a minister of his choice into the parish. Donald Sage the minister of Resolis walked out and took almost all his congregation with him. There were riots, I think in 1843, when the patron tried to introduce his replacement and a woman called Margaret Cameron ended up being taken to the jail in Cromarty a few miles to the east. A mob marched to Cromarty and broke her out. Here is a newspaper article on the story.
Comparing the church as it was and is now it looks like the conversion has kept a lot of the character on the outside at least. Much better than letting these old buildings languish because of nitpicking by planners.
After the church went on to Balblair, a favourite haunt, to see what was going on at Invergordon across the Cromarty Firth. After a dull start a lovely warm bright clear day.