Rain and midges prevented an open-air mass being held on the shore of a Lochaber loch yesterday to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the opening of a training college for priests.
The seminary on the island of Eilean Ban in Loch Morar was the first in Britain, but it was used only for two short periods.
The first came to an end in 1716 after the failed Jacobite rebellion the previous year. It reopened in 1732, closing again when the seminary moved to the farm at Gaothdail, Arisaig, in 1738.
Around 300 people, including Catholic Church and political dignitaries, the leaders of the different religious denominations in the area and “all the faithful”, attended the mass that was to have been held outside Morar Parish Church yesterday afternoon.
Instead, they packed into the church, where all the seats were quickly filled and it was standing room only.
Father Joe Calleja, who is the priest at Morar Parish Church, said: “The weather was a bit disappointing as there was a lot of rain so we had to move into the church.
“There was only just room and there were people standing everywhere, but it was a beautiful service.
“I think it was good in a way that we were indoors as the midges were also very bad.”
The former Bishop of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles, Joseph Toal, who is now Bishop of Motherwell, was the main celebrant at the mass and used the silver chalice that was used at the seminary.
The Bishop of Aberdeen Hugh Gilbert, Monsignor James MacNeil, who is administrator at St Columba’s Cathedral in Oban, and more than 18 priests also attended the celebration.
A history of the seminary has been written by Father Michael J MacDonald, from Ardkenneth and Bornish, who wrote: “The real significance of the little seminary at Eilean Ban is that it was the first seminary to be established anywhere in Great Britain.”
Eilean Ban was chosen because it enjoyed the protection of the local chief, MacDonald of Morar.