Croick Church in Southern Sutherland marks a very sad story of Highland Culture. The church lies in the beautiful and remote Strathcarron west of Ardgay. It is one of the so-called Parliamentary Churches which was planned and built by Thomas Telford in 1825-29 on the land which was donnated by the Rosses of Balnagown.

The 1823 Parliamentary Act for Building Additional Places of Worship in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland made the construction of small churches posiible. The Parliament supplied the sum of £50,000 to build 40 churches and accompanying manses to standardised designs produced by the famous Scottish architect and engineer Thomas Telford (see also in the Islay section)

The church was the home of a very tragic event druing the Highland Clearances. Scratched messages on the east window give evidence of the brutal eviction of eighteen families from theri homeland. Their cottages were cleared by Sir John Lockhart of Balnagown who exchanged the tennant system into comercial sheep farming. People cleared for sheep and lost their tradtion and family links.

„Prior to their departure many took shelter in impoverished booths erected in the Croick churchyard and their wretched plight is recorded in messages scratched on the outside of the east window of the Church.

It so happened that a correspondent from the Times newspaper witnessed these sad events and a facsimile of his graphic despatch to his editor in London reporting them has been placed within the Church.“  see Croick Parish

The Massacre of the Rosses in March 1854 is also recorded.

Nearby are the remains of a broch of the Iron Age.

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