Little is known about this ancient distinctively attractive small building. It was carefully constructed in solid stone with a simple unadorned interior. Nowadays the church building is dominated by the Bridge of Orchy Hotel. Tourists driving along the A82 are unlikely to miss the hotel but may well overlook the perfectly proportioned little church as they pass by on a road that, like the hotel, did not exist when the church was built in the 18th century nearly 250 years ago. A photograph taken in the 1920s, before either the modern A82 or hotel were built, shows Bridge of Orchy Church and a building identified as the local Free Church. The Free Church would have been erected after the major disruption in 1843. The Free Church is not shown on the first edition of the OS map for Argyll based on a survey in 1870 and published in 1874, but does appear on the revised second edition, based on surveying first in 1867, then revised in 1897 before publication in 1900. Bridge of Orchy Church features in both editions at the site where it stands today. The Free Church has since been demolished. Information derived from secure primary sources, concerning the origins of the building, remains elusive.
There appears to be no record of the building at the headquarters of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh and no readily accessible information in the National Archives of Scotland.
There is no evidence of a church at Bridge of Orchy in Roy’s map of Scotland published in 1750. However, on page 36 of Dalmally and the Glens (written and researched by McGrigor and published in 1976 by The Oban Times) we read “Bridge of Orchy has long been a meeting place of the folk of the upper glen and was therefore the natural site for a Church. In 1770, Lady Breadalbane persuaded her husband to pay for two missionaries for the hinterland of the west coast and shortly after this the Church was built as a ‘Chapel of Ease’. In 1882 the Church was renovated and at the same time the Parish of Strathfillan was divided from Killin.” A revised edition of Dalmally and the Glens was released in 2001 and McGrigor retains the account but with the revised dates of circa 1770 and 1880.
What was the purpose of a ‘Chapel of Ease? Local tradition accepts that such a chapel was the place where a coffin might rest before a funeral. There is a wooden bench some 22 inches in width in the vestry at Bridge of Orchy Church that would serve to support a coffin. Or was a ‘Chapel of Ease’ intended to provide residents and travellers with a place to rest and reflect? The church at Bridge of Orchy is indeed a calming, tranquil sanctuary with no ornamentation or decoration to distract those who seek respite from the hurly burly of the 21st century.