East Church, Inverness is a

Category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and former parish church of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

History

The church opened as a chapel of ease in 1798 but was rebuilt in 1852-1853. The street frontage was added in 1897-1898 by Ross & Macbeth. East Church left the Church of Scotland during the

disruption of 1843 The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...

and became Inverness East Free Church. In 1900 it joined with the

United Presbyterian Church of Scotland The United Presbyterian Church (1847–1900) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was formed in 1847 by the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, and in 1900 merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the Unit ...

to form the

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...

and became a United Free church. In 1929, with many other United Free churches, Inverness East Church, returned to the Church of Scotland. The Church's parish included some of the city centre of Inverness, as well as the Longman, Drakies and Raigmore areas. Within the Raigmore estate, they have an outreach post known as 'The Shack' which was a former rent office for the estate. It is used as a drop in for those in need, as well as being the base for a lot of the work the congregation does in this area of the parish. In 2022, Inverness Presbytery published plans to unify the parish with Inshes Church, and close East Church. Then final service was held on Sunday 5 March 2023. A. T. B. McGowan served as the final minister of the congregation, retiring from the charge on 1 February 2019. In 2024, the building was bought by Cultarlann Inbhir Nis, a charity working to create a Gaelic cultural centre.

References

External links

Inshes East Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inverness Church of Scotland churches in Scotland East Church Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area) Churches completed in 1853 Rebuilt churches in Scotland 19th-century Church of Scotland church buildings