38505: Ladies Highland Association

The Edinburgh Free Church Ladies Association for the religious improvement of the remote Highlands & Islands was formed in 1850. The main object of the Association was to encourage candidates for the ministry and enrolment was free.

In a letter to the Association from the Reverend Robert Finlayson in 1853, he states:

I beg to lay before the Association the destitute condition of the parish of Lochs with regard to schools. There are 60 families in Balallan and 24 in Laxay and at the lowest computation, 70 might attend. The majority of these children cannot read English or Gaelic and if allowed to remain for some years as they are, they must afterwards be taken from their parents to earn a livelihood, at the same time growing up almost in a state of heathenism, ignorant of the principles of Christianity and of any other branch of secular or useful knowledge.

The Ladies Highland Association Schools began in Lewis and between 1854 and 1872, Sgoilean nan Leidies chools were set up in Gravir, Cromore, Balallan, Achmore, Kershader and Lemreway. After 1872, schools were opened in Airidhbhruaich, Raernish, Crossbost, Grimshader and at Seaforth Head, which was the last “Ladies” School and ran until 1901. From 1872 the Education Act provided for new public schools to be built through the islands and these had gradually replaced the Ladies Schools.