Baxter Chapel


(Foula Chapel, Foula Church)

A small church on the roadside above Foula Airstrip in the Shetland Islands, Baxter Chapel (Foula Chapel or Foula Church of Scotland) is located a half-mile (1 km) south of the island's principal settlement at Ham. Built towards the end of the 19th century as an independent Congregationalist Church, it replaced a small chapel on the Ayre of Ham. A Congregational church had been established in Foula in 1817, following the teachings of Robert Haldane (1764 - 1842) and his younger brother James Haldane (1768 - 1851). The cost of the new church was met by a gift in memory of Dr. William Baxter by his two sisters. With the island's other kirk, sitting within the cemetery at Biggings, having been abandoned in the 1960s, Baxter Chapel is now maintained by the Church of Scotland. However, since 1990 there has been no resident minister with one having to travel from the Shetland Mainland up to six times per year to meet the needs of this remote community.


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