An unusual white-harled church which dominates the village of Bowmore in Islay, Kilarrow Parish Church, or the Round Church of Kilarrow, lies at the top of the village's wide Main Street, looking down towards the harbour. Built at cost of £1000 in 1769 by the island's laird, Daniel Campbell of Shawfield (c.1737-77), as the planned village of Bowmore was being laid out, this is the oldest church building on the island where regular public worship still takes place.
This A-listed building features a square stumpy ashlar tower over the entrance and the two-storey circular body of the church behind. This has an outside diameter of 18.3m (60 feet) and its walls are 0.84m (2¾ feet) in thickness. The round shape is thought to have been inspired by churches in Italy but the church is popularly believed to have gained this shape so there were no corners in which the devil could hide. It is covered by a conical slated roof. Inside, this roof is supported by eight beams radiating out from a central wooden pillar, some 48cm (19 inches) in diameter, possibly of hemlock oak, but coated in plaster. The base of this massive pillar has been scorched, to seal the wood against decay, and rounded to fit a saucer-shaped recess in the supporting sandstone block. The interior is bright and airy, although a U-shaped gallery supported by eight plastered timber columns was inserted c. 1830, increasing the capacity of the church to 500. A bow in the centre of the gallery, facing the pulpit, accommodates the laird's loft, pews which were once used by the laird of the island and his family during worship. The pews on the ground floor were re-organised in the later 19th C. and the organ installed in 1890.
Within the church are memorials to members of the Campbell family, including Walter Frederick Campbell (1798 - 1855), and his first wife, Lady Eleanor Charteris, who died in 1832, after whom Port Ellen is named. There is also a copy of the painting The Disruption of the Church by David Octavius Hill (1802-70), where he used photography to ensure the portraits of all the key players in the events if 1843 were recorded. Finally, the Church houses items belonging to Rev. Dr. Donald Caskie (1902-83), born in Bowmore, he became minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris and was notable as the Tartan Pimpernel who helped a remarkable number of allied servicemen escape occupied France. These items include the Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal which he was awarded. Caskie is buried in the churchyard.
