An Inverness church is facing a trinity of problems.
The Church of Scotland-owned Old High Church in the city centre has been vandalised, a camper continues to sleep out in the graveyard – and to add to the woes – Highland Council officials have warned of falling grave stones.
The church went up for sale earlier this year with an asking price of £150,000.
Shocking photographs show that since the worshiping community left the historic building it now has an overnight camper – and the walls of the church have been emblazoned with graffiti.
Council is responsible for the church graveyard
The graffiti appeared on the building overnight.
A spokesman for the Church of Scotland said: “Historically, the Church of Scotland, in the form of kirk sessions and heritors in each parish, was responsible for the maintenance of burial grounds within churchyards and kept records of burials.
“In 1925 responsibility for the maintenance of church graveyards was transferred to local authorities (or councils) in Scotland and from then burial records were no longer the responsibility of the church.”
The vandalism has been reported to police.
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “Across the Highland Council area amenity crews cut grass and carry out work the paths in council graveyards including the Old High Kirk, Inverness on an on-going basis.
“While they are doing this work if they find any headstones they consider a risk to the public these are dealt with right away through a safety checking programme specifically for headstones.
“Inspections across all our graveyards are on-going and any headstones considered dangerous or a risk to our staff and the public are dealt with immediately.
“Camping is not permitted within Highland Council burial grounds.”
350 lairs at risk
The management rules for burial grounds state that “the lair holder shall keep any memorial clean and in a safe condition of repair of which an authorised officer shall be the sole judge”.
The spokeswoman continued: “If the lair holder fails to make safe a memorial 21 days after written notice to the lair holder at their last known address, the council shall be entitled at the holder’s expense either to repair any memorials on that lair, lay it flat, or have them removed in the name of public safety.
“Sometimes memorials are too unstable to leave standing for 21 days and will be laid flat immediately, and the council will seek to notify the lair holder in this instance. ”
The council said there were a further 350 lairs at nearby Tomnahurich Cemetery that were unsafe.
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