Saint Inan - History

History

Although he is said to have been a hermit, according to tradition St. Inan often visited the nearby town of Beith, frequenting Cuff Hill with its Rocking stone and various other prehistoric monuments. A cleft in the west-front of Lochlands Hill is still known as 'St. Inan's Chair' and said to have been used by the saint as a pulpit. and a crystal clear holy well existed nearby, now sadly covered over (2006). An unsuccessful search for the saint's writings which were said to be preserved in the library of Bonci, Archbishop of Pisa was made by Colonel Mure of Caldwell in the 19th-century.

Saint Inan is said to have preached to the assembled people from the chair on the hill and stayed on the site of Cauldhame Cottage. There was not a great population in the area at that time and the people were located not in Beith, but up on the top of the Bigholm near to what were the Beith water dams. The first settlements were in the heavily wooded areas around the dams where people were safe from attack and could get food from the land, and fish in the lochs. The Saints of old went where the people were, and they also tended to go where there had been worship of heathen Gods. It has been suggested that High Bogside Farm, which used to be called Bellsgrove, was really 'Baalsgrove', which fits in with the story of St. Inan going to where the pagan gods were.