'Significant complaints' over Church of Scotland sales as communities 'turned down' for highest bidder

Communities should get priority when churches go up for sale after several have been handed over to the highest bidder, the main body representing community landowners in Scotland has said.

The calls come after several claims have been made that Church of Scotland overlooks local groups when there is a higher offer for its properties that come on the market. The religious body has also been accused of making the purchase process unnecessarily complicated for communities.

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The historic Old High Church in Inverness is among those listed for sale on the Kirk's website.

With falling congregations and the rising costs of maintaining old buildings, Church of Scotland is selling hundreds of its buildings around the country.

Community Land Scotland (CLS) said it had received “significant complaints” about the church authority, saying that it had not been supportive of local groups wanting to buy church buildings for community facilities.

Many Church of Scotland properties are up for sale due to expensive upkeep of buildings and dwindling congregations | Katharine Hay

It comes after news of the Braemar Kirk being sold to millionaire couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth, who run the luxury boutique Fife Arms Hotel, despite elders in the Aberdeenshire village putting forward a bid to keep the venue as a church in the community.

Braemar Kirk in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, saw its last service last month as it goes through the process of being sold to the owners of the Fife Arms | Supplied

The church has been listed for sale with offers over £160,000. The Scotsman revealed the offer put down by the millionaire couple was £325,000, with the elders missing out on the bid by about £70,000.

A community trust in Arisaig, in Lochaber on the west coast, also failed in its bid when the village church was put up for sale by the Church of Scotland. Given the minimum asking price of £135,000, the Arisaig Community Trust asked church headquarters for some extra time to go raise the money.

A community trust in Arisaig, in Lochaber on the west coast of Scotland tried to buy its local church but failed

The trust had drawn up plans to convert the church into two additional affordable lets for locals and have a multi-purpose community facility, which the community was keen to use.

A few days before the bids closed, an anonymous donor gave the trust a £100,000 donation towards buying the church and, along with other donations, it secured the £135,000 asking price. However, the offer was turned down in favour of a higher bidder.

Anne Widdop, the treasurer of the trust, said: “We tried to get a wee bit of extra time. We worked tirelessly for many months and completed a community consultation, had a full feasibility study, architectural drawings and a business plan. We were in the process of raising the significant asking price for the Church.

“But Church headquarters in Edinburgh were having none of it.  ‘If you want to bid, then bid when it goes to the open market’ was the message from Edinburgh.

“We basically had a few weeks’ notice, which was really challenging for us.” 

Ms Widdop added: “Generations of people from this community have maintained the church and paid for its upkeep. We weren’t looking for special favours and we expected to pay the valuation.

“However, it feels only fair that the community be given a proper chance when the church is up for sale. It is a massive blow to the community that the Church couldn’t see past a few hundred pounds and have now denied future generations the opportunity to marry or have their funeral in a well-loved, grade B, listed building.”

Residents on Eigg said they feel the path to purchasing the picturesque St Columba Church and small glebe area on the island, which went up for sale in 2022, had been “unnecessarily difficult”.

Community group on the Isle of Eigg said the system in place to purchase the local church had been ‘impenetrable and unnecessarily complicated’

While recently being told their disputed valuation for the property been accepted, leaving them hopeful they will succeed, Camille Dressler, a trustee of Solas Eige, the community group leading the effort purchase, said the church authorities had been slow and unresponsive in the process.

She said: “At first we received a very positive response to the idea of the community on Eigg seeking to purchase the church.

“However, when we started corresponding with the Church’s legal services, communication became very poor. We offered to lease the church whilst we pursue the acquisition, but it turned out to be too difficult.

“As a group of volunteers on Eigg, we did our best to inform the church of what we were doing at every step of the way. But most of the time we got no response or the response was very slow as it had to go through the minister and not directly to us.

“The system appeared impenetrable and unnecessarily complicated.”

CLS said many community groups were reluctant to speak publicly about their frustrations as they felt it might damage future relations with church authorities.

Linsay Chalmers, development manager at CLS, said: “For generations the local communities were usually the ones who supported their local church - their families often built the churches - and the communities paid for the maintenance of the churches often for hundreds of years.

“If the community has offered a fair price for the church building, and if the community is to get a clear benefit from getting the building, then it would only seem fair that the church authorities would co-operate with the community.

“We have heard a significant number of cases where local communities have gone through the hoops and raised the valuation price and done the considerable form filling, etc, and the church authorities have not been helpful. Given the local church is usually a big part of the community heritage, the community should get priority.”