Religion of the Yellow Stick

The religion of the yellow stick (Scottish Gaelic: Creideamh a’ bhata-bhuidhe) was a facetious name given to the forced "belief" of certain churchgoers who lived in the Hebrides of Scotland. Such actions, however, were not unique to the Hebrides, but occurred in other parts of Scotland.

A Coll priest of former times was accustomed to drive recalcitrant natives to church by a smart application of his walking stick; those who yielded were thus said to come under Creideamh a’ bhata-bhuidhe.

Another version says that Hector (Scottish Gaelic: Eachann) the son of Lachlan MacLean of Coll, was the one who applied the yellow stick. Hector was laird of Muck in 1715, and the religion of the yellow stick was introduced into Rùm in 1726. Dr Samuel Johnson, on his famous journey round the Hebrides (1775) encountered the story; in Rùm he said that there were

David Livingstone, whose ancestors came from Ulva near the Mull and Staffa, said:

The "yellow stick" in Livingstone's description may be a reference to the Bishop of Lismore's crozier or baculum, in Gaelic the "Bachuil Mor" or staff of Saint Moluag, the patron saint of the Clan MacLea or Livingstone.

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