Yarrow Kirk

About Yarrow Kirk

One of its most famous ministers, Dr James Russell wrote another classic guide: ‘Reminiscences of Yarrow’ (1886). In it he describes parishioners attending worship having walked barefoot from the top of St Mary’s Loch or over the hills from Ettrick. He also said that so many shepherds attended that the words of the sermon could sometimes scarcely be heard for the barking and fighting of their sheepdogs. The final benediction was always given with the congregation sitting down ‘to cheat the dougs’ who would otherwise know the service was ending and give vent to a crescendo of howling and barking!