Suddy
Associated Chapels: (none known).
Parish Church: OS Ref: NGR NH 665547 H.E.S. No: NH65SE 14 Dedication: St Duthac
At Meikle Suddy, about a mile north of Munlochy Bay, all that remains of St Duthac's or Suddie Church is the east gable which is virtually intact; part of the north wall, 1.2m high containing an aumbry; and the turf-covered footings of part of the west gable-wall. The construction is typical of the area and consists of roughly coarsed masonry bonded with shell-mortar. It lies a little distance east of Roskill House, once the residence of the McKenzies of Suddie.
The earliest reference we have to a priest at Suddy is in the year 1227 when Thomas, the parson of Suddy, witnessed, at Kenedor, the settlement of an infamous dispute between the bishops of Moray and Ross regarding the churches of Kyntalargyn {Kintarlity} and Ardrosser {Arderseir}.
Later, in the reconstitution of the chapter of Ross, this parsonage, along with that of Kinettes, was assigned to the precentor of Ross, which arrangement was confirmed by Pope Alexander IV in 1255/6. At some indeterminate date before the 16th-century, however, the two parsonages passed to the chancellor of Ross, by exchange - the precentor receiving in return the benefice of Kilmorack.
Both parsonage and vicarage fruits were apparently annexed to form the prebend, whilst the cure was served by a single vicar pensioner who also served the cure of Kilmuir Wester.
The church at Suddie was abandoned in 1762 after a new church building had been erected, in 1754, to serve the now united parishes of Suddy and Kilmuir Wester.
On a small hill north west from the church, named Hurdyhill, there was a well, imagined to have the virtue of curing sick children when left one night beside it.
There was a chaplainry of Munlochy founded within the cathedral of Ross and supported by certain lands of Munlochy within this parish.
