Scots in Russia

I did enjoy reading Iain Thornber’s article about Scots in Russia. Charles Cameron has always been one of my favourite Scottish architects and I had not realised he came from Morvern. Cameron deserves to be as well known as Adam, Playfair and Chambers.

We visited St Petersburg a few years ago and managed to make our way to Tsarskoye Selo to visit Cameron’s most famous work. The facade of the palace is amazing and makes Buckingham Palace look like a country cottage!

The Agate Pavilion is equally impressive, beautiful example of neoclassicism.

It was quite an adventure, using Russian public transport, to reach the palace, but the trip was so rewarding and so worth while.

aThis Thomas Telford designed building has been at the social and spiritual centre of the community for some 200 years and to close it and sell off the building would be an irreparable loss to the extensive parish. I gather there has been little consultation with the congregation and no consultation with the community about such a drastic decision.

I appreciate that the number attending the church each week has gradually declined but that is true of almost every established church in Scotland but you cannot judge its value to the community simply by counting heads on a Sunday morning. I think that it is in the public interest that the decision to close this beautiful church is more widely known so that steps can be taken to prevent its closure.