At the end of the Second World War the soldiers returned home to a Heaste and are reputed to have built a small tin church, or tabernacle. The church was paid for by the residents of Heaste and built on Common Grazing land to the east of Croft 10. It was opened in 1953.The single roomed church contained a lecturn and seven pews. It was simply built with timber frame and corrugated tin cladding and may have been a pre-war kit (tbc).

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The first preacher was a missionary named Alexander’s MacLeod, from Staffin. He visited every other week for a service at 3pm (source: Flora Anne MacLeod). The minister in the seventies was Mr MacKiver, a Minister of the Free Church of Scotland, who would come once a month to deliver a service. Many of the adults who grew up in Heaste remember being frightened by the physical size of the minister and the animated delivery of his fire and brimstone sermons. Contemporary residents of Heaste also remember a minister from the Free Church of Scotland holding services in the church.

However, the church ceased to be used in the nineteen eighties and it fell into disrepair over the years that followed. Yet, the pews, lecturn and Ministers chair are still in the church and the bible resides with the Clerk of Common Grazing. The residents township are now actively talking about the future of the church.

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Progress update June 2019

The minor works required to make the church watertight have been completed. These included patching the holes in the roof, inserting a temporary door and south facing window, repairing the two north facing windows and removing the rotten floor boards. The interior has also been repainted.

The future of the church was discussed at the Township Meeting on 23 June 2019. Volunteers have offered to help with the remaining works. Critically, funds are required for a new north facing window, new guttering, a new door, new floorboards for part of the floor refurbishing the pews and lecturn.

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