Historic Stoer church reopens as a 20-bed hostel
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A HISTORIC church in Stoer has been repurposed into a 20-bed hostel offering budget accommodation to visitors.
The redundant, 120-year-old Stoer Free Presbyterian Church, sited eight miles north of Lochinver on the B869 road, is now operating as bunkhouse accommodation.
Behind the conversion is Claire Belshaw, a Stoer resident of 30 years standing.
Mrs Belshaw previously ran holiday chalets two miles from the church and also worked as a countryside ranger for 10 years from 1994 to 2004.
She said: “I just wanted a change so I sold the chalets in 2017 and bought the church in 2019 – it is a half-mile from my house.”
Mrs Belshaw spotted an opening in the market locally for bunkhouse accommodation, with the North Coast 500 tourism route drawing an increasing number of visitors to the area.
She applied to Highland Council for planning consent to change the use of the slate-roofed property in August 2018 and it has taken her until now to steer the project to fruition.
In a nod to the building’s history, a Harvest thanksgiving service was held there before conversion work eventually started.
The building’s interior has been gutted to create an open plan living space downstairs, including cooking and dining facilities.
A newly erected first floor accommodates bed spaces and sanitary facilities.
“I knew it would all have to be ripped out and an extra floor put in,” said Mrs Belshaw. “I kept half the pews and sold the rest.
“Tables and benches have been made out of them and some were kept and reinstated round the edge of the main room. All the contractors used were local.”
Although the facility is open now, Mrs Belshaw does not expect it will be fully used until next season. She anticipates employing at least one full-time equivalent worker in 2023, if not more.
She also has plans to create a garden for food production.
The history of the church can be traced back to 1902 with hand-written title deeds to the building showing that the plot of land on which it stands was feued by the Duke of Sutherland to 10 named individuals from Culkein, Achnacarnin, Clashnessie, Clashmore, Clachtoll and Balchladich.
In its hey-day in the 1950s, the pews, which could accommodate up to 80 worshippers, would have been crammed.
But the church stopped using the building at the millennium with the last service thought to have taken place in 2001.
A planning application to convert it into a house was lodged in 2011, but did not proceed.
At the time Kenneth Macleod of Inverness solicitors and estate agents Macleods WS, acting on behalf of the Church, said the Church was clear that any future use of the building should be for residential purposes and not for “any purposes directly opposed to the preaching of the Gospel”.
The hostel, which is in the Assynt-Coigach National Scenic area, has two dorms with bunk beds as well as two twin rooms and a double room. A night’s stay costs from £30.
