Residents in an Aberdeenshire community face a four-mile journey for funerals and Remembrance Sunday services after the only church in the village was put up for sale.
Johnshaven Church and Hall has been put on the market by the Church of Scotland for offers of around £75,000 after its congregation shrank to just a handful of members.
It spells the end of more than a century and a half of worship in the building, which opened in 1860, and means parishioners will have to travel to St Cyrus instead.
Last night the situation was branded a “sign of the times” by the chairman of the Benholm and Johnshaven community council, Don Marr.
Mr Marr said: “There is a remembrance service at the church every year. What is going to happen now I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“Funerals are another thing we will have to look at.
“When I came here in 1979 the average attendance at church would have been somewhere in the 40s and over the years the numbers have dropped.
“We are down to about five or so people turning out.”
Some locals have suggested raising funds to purchase the building and keep it open as a community facility.
Mearns councillor George Carr said: “It is one of those challenges facing villages where churches have falling congregations, but there are times when you need the church in the centre of the village.”
A Church of Scotland spokeswoman said: “Following a public meeting held last year, Johnshaven Church is being sold with a closing date set for noon on Friday, July 31.
“The Johnshaven congregation had merged with that of St Cyrus 16 years ago to form the Mearns Coastal Parish.”