Reverend Donald MacInnis was the third minister to serve in Glenmoriston after the Disruption for eleven years, from 1879 until his death on September 24th 188.
The two men before him also had the charge of the Free church in Fort Augustus, where they lived. Donald MacInnis was a Glenmoriston man and he would never leave.
His grave is a lonely one, tucked between the road and the old empty church building. Access is not possible, the church is private, people live here.
What would the Reverend have thought about resting in other people’s garden, I wonder?
Apparently he left many fine memories amongst the people of the Glen.
Calum I. Maclean (1915-1960) one of the foremost Scottish folklorists and ethnologists of his generation, remembered him vividly in MY CHILDHOOD IN GLENMORISTON, the transcript is taken from the respective Facebook page. Calum MacLean originally wrote in Gaelic.
I was about six years of age when I went to school which was located about two miles from where I stayed. And I had a brother who was four years older than me, and the rest were younger.
(…) Now, when I was twelve and a half year of age, I got a medal for being the best scholar in the school. And I remember that very well. I was the lad who got that and a lassie got one too and her father’s folk belonged to Invermoriston and her mother’s folk were from Strathglass – she was a Grieve, Elizabeth Grieve.
And the minister in Cùl nan Càrn in Glenmoriston was in the schoolhouse on that day to give out the medals in the Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria. And I remember very well, as I said, when he finished speaking in Gaelic, “I believe,” he said, “that the next time I meet you that you two will be married to one another,” he said. But that never happened. He belonged to island folk – a man called MacInnes, and a nicer man never wore clerical garb. Oh! a good man – Big Donald MacInnes they’d call him.
A good man and the centre of the community now rests alone, gone but not forgotten by those who grew up in Glenmoriston.
Find more hidden stories in Nellie Merthe Erkenbach’s guide Scotland for Quiet Moments on Amazon.
Graveyards of Scotland 
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