Kilarrow Church (Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais Cill an Rubha) 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, more reminiscent of some churches built in the 1960s. It has been suggested that the circular design was intended to ensure that there were no corners in which the devil could hide. The roof is supported by a single massive central pillar.
The Church also contains some artifacts belonging to the Bowmore-born Rev Donald Caskie (1902-1983), former minister of The Scots Kirk, Paris and notable as the "Tartan Pimpernel" for aiding over 2,000 Allied servicemen in their escape from occupied France.
The linked parishes of Kilarrow and Kilmeny are vacant following a reallocation of Ministers.
Famous quotes containing the words parish and/or church:
“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, and the stars begin to flicker in the sky,”
—Mitchell Parish (1901–1993)
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)