Our Church
Our Church is situated in the beautiful town of Beauly which lies on the northern bank of the River Beauly at the point where the river flows into the Beauly Firth. In popular myth its name, "beau lieu", is said to originate from a remark made by Mary, Queen of Scots during a visit to the town in 1564. However it would appear that the name, which means beautiful place actually dates as far back as the thirteenth century when it was so named by the monks who founded the Priory, the ruins of which can still be seen just off the main square.

At the Disruption of 1843 the people of the congregation as a body joined the Free Church of Scotland leaving the minister behind them. The Rev A. D. MacKenzie was called to the congregation in 1844 and was there for fifty years (the last four as senior minister). His successor, the Rev J. R. McRae, entered the Union of 1900 and it was 1925 before the congregation had another minister.

Our place of worship is located about one hundred yards along Croyard Road, which can be found just off the west end of the town square beside the Bank of Scotland building. There are plenty of facilities for parking both in the square and side streets.

Minister:— Rev Henry J. T. Woods BA, Dip. Theol.
Manse:— Free Church Manse, Bridgend, Beauly, Inverness-shire, IV4 7EJ. Tel: 01463 782303
Session Clerk:— Dr Murdo Murchison, Ord House, Strathpeffer, Ross-shire, IV14 9AX
Congregational Treasurer:— Mr Martin Kirkwood, Broallan, Kilmorack, Beauly, Inverness-shire
Midweek Meeting:— Prayer Meeting, Wednesday 7.30 pm.
Woman’s meeting:— Monthly as intimated
Services:— 12 noon and 6.30 pm
Sunday School:— 12 noon - 1.15 pm every week
Communions:— 2nd Lord’s Day in May and 1st Lord’s Day in November

Although we go by the name of Beauly Free Church, ecclesiastically our congregation is known as Kilmorack and Strathglass, a name which indicates we serve a much wider area that the town alone. We are a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland (continuing) which seeks to bear witness to the love and grace of God in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The congregation is a reformed and presbyterian congregation believing that the Bible is the Word of God and the only rule of faith and life.

More detailed History of the "Church of Scotland Free"
The Free Church of Scotland is a Presbyterian Church adhering in its worship and doctrine to the position adopted by the Church of Scotland at the Reformation. Its divergence from the Church of Scotland dates from the Disruption of 1843 when, under the leadership of Dr Thomas Chalmers, the Evangelical Party in the Church of Scotland as by Law Established, withdrew from the Establishment to form the Church of Scotland, Free

Disruption
The immediate cause of the Disruption was the insistence by the civil courts that the Established Church had to ordain men to the parish ministry irrespective of their acceptability to the parishioners. The Evangelical Party regarded this as an intolerable interference in the spiritual liberties of the church and so they withdrew from the Established Church to form the Free Church. The Disruption was not intended to be a disruption or division of the Church. Rather it was to be a severing of the link that bound the Church to the State. However, since the Church was not of one mind regarding the proposed action, the Church itself was split. The Established Church remained and the Free Church, claiming to be the same Church as that which it had left, a church adhering to the same Confession of Faith, loyal to the same principles and differing only inasmuch as in the discharge of its spiritual function it was to be subservient to no other authority than the will of God as understood by the collective mind of the Church, came into being.

Declension
The Established Church and the Free Church were not the only Presbyterian Churches in nineteenth century Scotland. In the eighteenth century there had been more than one secession from the Church of Scotland giving rise to the formation of several groupings with distinctive confessional standpoints. In the late nineteenth century a movement to unite the splintered Presbyterian Churches in Scotland was begun. Not surprisingly, given the different, not to say opposing, nature of the confessional formularies of the various churches, union was found to be possible only on the basis of compromise — an agreement to adopt a confession of faith sufficiently vague and elastic as to allow those holding different views to subscribe it with good conscience. When the Free Church was confronted with this dilemma, a minority took the view that the doctrines which were being treated as open questions were to vital to the faith that the duty of Christian unity had to yield to the higher duty of fidelity to the truth. The consequence was that when the great majority of the Free Church entered the Union of 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland (and in 1929 to reunite with the Church of Scotland) a small minority elected to continue the Free Church of Scotland. The adherents of this 'constitutionalist' party, as it was termed, were to be found mainly, although not exclusively, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Today the Free Church, although much reduced in size, maintains in continuity with the Church of 1843 the system of doctrine and the form of worship adopted by the Church of Scotland at the Reformation. The singing of the Scottish Metrical Psalms unaccompanied by instrumental music is, perhaps, the most distinctive feature of its liturgy, but the chief emphasis of its worship is still to be found in the centrality of the Word of God, preached and the proclamation of a free and sovereign salvation in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.