Autumn Saint Conan's Kirk Loch Awe Argyll And Bute Scotland

Tour Scotland Autumn travel video of Saint Conan's Kirk on ancestry visit to Loch Awe in Argyll and Bute. This Scottish church was established as a chapel of ease by the Campbells of Innis Chonan. It is famous for the fragment of bone that is said to have come from Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. The the King Robert The Bruce Chapel owes its origins to the fact that it was on a hillside above the church that he dispatched the famous outflanking column under the Earl of Douglas, which inflicted a decisive defeat on John Lorne and his clansmen in the Pass of Brander. The effigy is made of wood, with the hands and face being of alabaster. Beneath the effigy is a small ossuary which contains a bone of Bruce, from Dunfermline Abbey in Fife. The window in the chapel was the original west window from St Mary's Church in Leith, Edinburgh. The St Bride's Chapel contains the tomb of the Fourth Lord Blythswood, who helped to carry on the work on St Conan's Kirk after Walter Campbell and his sister had both died. This chapel is in a very early Norman style and contains two slabs of Levantine marble about which there is a curious little history. Although coming originally from the Mediterranean, they were shaped and polished somewhere near Louvain. The first duly arrived on Loch Awe side in the summer of 1914, but the second had to wait until the end of the First World War before it could join its neighbour. The McCorquodale stained glass window was erected in memory of a friend of the Blythswood family. Unlike any of the other stained-glass windows, this was included in the other and smaller building. It was originally installed on the opposite side of the church, but the background of hillside and trees did not do full justice to the stained glass, and so, when the larger scheme was put in hand, the opportunity was taken to move it so that it should overlook the loch. The window consists of three lights. The first shows the Warrior, who has put on the whole Armour of God and bears the Shield of Faith. His faith is so strong that he does not even look at the fiery darts coming up through brambles and smoke. The opposite light shows the Sword of the Spirit piercing evil creatures; while the centre light, " I have finished my course, " depicts angels taking from the Warrior's head the Helmet of Salvation and showing the weeds and smoke at his feet turning to roses.

The surname McCorquodale was first found in Argyllshire, Gaelic erra Ghaidheal, the region of western Scotland corresponding roughly with the ancient Kingdom of Dál Riata, in the Strathclyde region of Scotland, now part of the Council Area of Argyll and Bute, where they held a family seat from early times..

Spelling variations include; MacCorquodale, MacCorquindale, MacCorkindale, MacCorkill.

Barbara McCorquodale, arrived in Newfoundland in 1820.

Christian McCorquodale, arrived in Virginia, America, in 1792.

Allan McCorquodale, arrived in San Francisco, California, America, in 1850.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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