Stoer, or Store

   STOER, or STORE, lately a quoad sacra parish, in the parish of Assynt, county of Sutherland, 19 miles (W. N. W.) from the village of Assynt; containing, with the village of Clashnessie and the island of Oldeney, 1478 inhabitants. This district was separated ecclesiastically from the parish of Assynt, by authority of the General Assembly, in 1834. The greatest length by computation is fourteen, and its greatest breadth eleven, miles; and the population, which is chiefly collected in a number of small villages and hamlets, is, with a very few exceptions, of the poor and working classes, principally engaged in agricultural pursuits, and occasionally in fishing. The northernmost land is the point of Stoer, eastward of which is the small isle of Oldeney, where are two harbours; and Clashnessie, one of the largest villages in the district, is seated at the head of a bay bearing its own name. The ecclesiastical affairs were placed under the presbytery of Dornoch and synod of Sutherland and Caithness, and the patronage vested in the Crown: the stipend allotted to the minister was £120, paid from the exchequer, with a manse, a glebe of the annual value of £2. 5., and the privilege of cutting peat. The church was built in 1828, by the parliamentary commissioners, and so constructed as to admit of enlargement by the erection of galleries; but it has not been since altered, and at present contains 500 sittings. The members of the Free Church have a place of worship, situated nearly a mile to the north of the parliamentary church, and capable of accommodating 700 persons. The Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, and the Edinburgh Gaelic Society, each support a day school in the district, the former for teaching English and Gaelic, and the latter for Gaelic only; there is likewise a government parish school, newly established.