The Glenmoriston Footprints

	The Glenmoriston footprints in 2010

"Footprints in the sands of time" take on a new meaning when they last 180 years! Yet in lovely Glenmoriston there are the footprints of the great Highlands evangelist, Finlay Munro, whose audience in this area proved less than receptive to his message.

I first came across the footprints when I visited Loch Ness thirty years ago, in the days when you could park in a layby overlooking the loch and look down on Urquhart Castle. (Today a mean and grasping tourist authority has planted a screen of trees to encourage you to fork out seven quid to go and see the ruin.) In those days there was a notice board listing local attractions, among which were the "Glenmoriston Footprints", left by a young preacher who was called "a cheat and a liar".

	The Glenmoriston footprints in 1981

In fact he was the famous Highlands evangelist Finlay Munro, noted for his miraculous powers as well as his preaching and he was no longer young. In fact, he died of old age in 1834, just seven years after his visit to Glenmoriston. His text on this occasion was a verse in Amos: "Prepare to meet thy God!" and I suggest that his message was inspired partly by another famous Scottish preacher, Edward Irving, and partly by a Spanish Jesuit priest.

Intriguing? I hope so.