St. Ninians
Coordinates: 56°06′11″N 3°56′20″W / 56.103°N 3.939°W
St. Ninians is a long-standing settlement which is now a district of the city of Stirling in central Scotland. It is located approximately one mile south of the city centre. It was originally known as Eccles (i.e. 'church'), and may have been a Christian site from an unusually early date (possibly 5th or 6th century). Later called 'St. Ringan's' (a variant of St Ninian's). This church was the administrative centre for churches across the strath of the River Forth.
A document dating from 1147 refers to "the church of Egglis St Ninians with its chapels of Dunipace and Lithbert".
In the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, the retreating army of Bonnie Prince Charlie blew up the church of St. Ninians where they had been storing munitions; only the tower survived and can be seen to this day.
A few years after the Church was rebuilt it became the scene of another drama. The local landowner 'presented' a new minister, Mr Thomson of Gargunnock. He was not chosen by the heads of families and a dispute arose. After years of wrangling the Presbytery was forced to appoint him. The Moderator of Presbytery addressed these words to him
He did not give up and so was inducted.
Of the twenty-one elders of the parish, one remained loyal to the old Church, the others left its walls. They along with the majority of the people formed a 'Relief Church.'
In the disruption of 1843 a Free Church of Scotland was formed. This congregation eventually returned to the Church of Scotland and became known as St George's. In 1969 it was dissolved and the building eventually demolished to make way for housing. The Relief congregation originally at the 'toll' continues today as St Ninians United Free Church of Scotland.
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